technology:drone technology

#Drone Aid: A useful tool with a toxic image — by Michiel Hofman, Senior Humanitarian Specialist, and Jonathan Whittall, Head of Humanitarian Analysis | MSF UK
▻http://www.msf.org.uk/article/opinion-and-debate-drone-aid-a-useful-tool-with-a-toxic-image

https://media.msf.org/Docs/MSF/Media/TR1/0/4/9/0/MSF147992.jpg

Drone technology – that can gather data on ‘suspicious behaviour’ – can now be used to identify potential ‘terrorists’ and drone targets. The #SCHIEBEL Camcopter-S100 surveillance drone has come under recent scrutiny for its ability to easily be converted into a drone that can fire missiles. This ‘Camcopter’ is one of the most prolific drones in the world, serving in at least 11 militaries [3]

Initially the #MOAS website proudly displayed the partnership with #MSF alongside the logo of SCHIEBEL and a Marine oil company as ‘sponsors’ of MOAS. (...) MOAS has been using this new partnership also to promote its association with the drone manufacturer. The founder of MOAS, who owns a insurance/risk management/intelligence company ‘TANGIERS[4]’ in Malta on his blog for MOAS in April published an article called ‘humanitarian drones: bots without borders’[5]

(...) some of the Italian and British press reported that data from the MOAS/MSF drone was shared with Italian law enforcement agencies in order to identify smugglers.[6]

(...) data shared with the EU authorities can now be considered as #military_intelligence. Combined with the type of drone used – the Schiebel ‘camcopter’, MSF is now the first international humanitarian organisation to be associated with military grade drone equipment in an area of military operation.

This leaves the image of MSF particularly vulnerable. Very quickly the reputation of the small ‘search and rescue’ cam-copter has become one of the many military drones deployed in order to hunt down and destroy people smugglers. The fact that MSF does not pay for the drone, that the MSF logo has been removed from the SCHIEBEL/MOAS webpage, that MSF itself does not give information to the military authorities does not matter if MSF does not very loudly say so. SCHIEBEL continues to market the partnership with MOAS/MSF to profile civilian use for its equipment, whilst MSF stays silent on the issue.

The military association with drone use in the Mediterranean is illustrative of the dangers of drone technology for humanitarian actors in general. Specifically for MSF, the debate is on whether or not the negative image associated with drones means that even the use of small scale drones in Papua New Guinea or the Philippines should be discontinued. Drones may be very useful, but for humanitarian use, their reputation may just be too toxic for MSF.

#technologies_duales #humanitaire #armée

Games of #Drones: The Uneasy Future of the Soldier-Hero in Call of Duty: Black Ops II

In this article, I argue that the first-person shooter video game, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, reflects the U.S. military‟s transition as it reimagines the soldier‟s role in war. In the age of drone technology, this role shifts from a position of strength to one of relative weakness. Although video games that feature future combat often “function as virtual enactments and endorsements for developing military technologies,” Black Ops II offers a surprisingly complex vision of the future of drones and U.S. soldiers (Smicker 2009: 107). To explore how the game reflects a contemporary vision of the U.S. military, I weave together a close textual reading of two levels in Black Ops II with actual accounts from drone pilots and politicians that illuminate the nature of drone combat. Although there are moments in Black Ops II in which avatars combat enemies with first-hand firepower, the experience of heroic diegetic violence is superseded by a combat experience defined by powerlessness, boredom, and ambiguous pleasure. The shift of the soldier from imposing hero to a banal figure experiences its logical conclusion in Unmanned, an independent video game that foregrounds the mundane, nonviolent nature of drone piloting. Instead of training soldiers to withstand emotionally devastating experiences of death and violence first-hand (or to physically enact such violence), games like Black Ops II and Unmanned train actual and potential soldiers to tolerate monotony and disempowerment.

▻http://library.queensu.ca/ojs/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/hero

Un joli petit drone nord coréen

Crashed drones reveal state of North’s drone program | NK News - North Korea News

▻http://www.nknews.org/2014/04/crashed-drones-reveal-state-of-norths-drone-program

April 3rd, 2014

▻http://www.nknews.org/wp-content/themes/NKNews/timthumb.php?src=http://www.nknews.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/crashed-drones.jpg&w=657&h=360&q=100

Two North Korean unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) – commonly known as drones – crashed in South Korean territory in late March. Though neither design is very large or advanced, they demonstrate that Pyongyang is developing drone technology capable of conducting reconnaissance against the South.

#drones #corée_du_nord

US #drone attacks ’counter-productive’, former Obama security adviser claims | World news | guardian.co.uk
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/07/obama-adviser-criticises-drone-policy

The United States’ use of drones is counter-productive, less effective than the White House claims, and is “encouraging a new arms race that will empower current and future rivals and lay the foundations for an international system that is increasingly violent”, according to a study by one of President Obama’s former security advisers.

Michael Boyle, who was on Obama’s counter-terrorism group in the run-up to his election in 2008, said the US administration’s growing reliance on drone technology was having “adverse strategic effects that have not been properly weighed against the tactical gains associated with killing terrorists”.

Civilian casualties were likely to be far higher than had been acknowledged, he said.

The Political Consequences of a #Drones-First Policy - Joshua Foust - International - The Atlantic
►http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/01/the-political-consequences-of-a-drones-first-policy/252129

Future drone technology, which includes making the planes autonomous, are unnerving to many of us who wonder about the substantial costs imposed by the current, human-controlled aircraft.There are no immediate plans for an autonomous lethal drone yet — all of the automated systems will be for surveillance and resupplying ground troops — but the rush to robots in warfare is worrying. There just isn’t enough thought about what consequences these systems impose on U.S. policy. There needs to be.

The Associated Press: Israel deploys drones over Egyptian border
►http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iyz3Kkv54rsSqyYukjXmIv1huFqA?docId=040a59c9e1ca455f8204320b74c39052

A senior Israeli military official says the air force has deployed a special unit of unmanned surveillance aircraft along its long, porous border with Egypt after militants crossed the frontier and killed eight Israelis last month.

[...]

Israel, along with the United States, is a world leader in drone technology.

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