Limitations of Drone Warfare in the War on Terror - Term Paper Example

Contrary to popular opinion, drone warfare is not limited to attacks. A vital aspect of drones, which was previously misunderstood by most people, was their support for intelligence activities. Since the First World War, there has been an emphasis on the use of aircraft to gather intelligence, as evidenced in the 1960 U-2 incident and the huge popularity of aerial reconnaissance. As a result, in the best interests of this paper, the term warfare will be considered in its entirety, meaning the inclusion of conventional and unconventional approaches (Gertz & Brooks, 2014).

By the end of World War Two, many countries had accepted that human casualties and infrastructural damage necessitated by the pursuit of military victories could be reduced by using pilotless aircraft. This view was supported by the fact that in some cases, scores of civilians and military personnel died in the quest to capture or kill individual targets (Holmqvist, 2013). Drones were perfect for such campaigns since they offered an alternative that is risk-free, cheap, virtual (passive) and removed from human dispositions.

By the end of the 1950s, although the possibility of drone warfare was still remote, the aim of minimizing risk, costs, and casualties in a conflict inspired many countries to accelerate technology in this field. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the United States continued exploring ways to replace ground troops with drones where necessary (Brady, 2012). It took until the late 1980s for West Germany, the Soviet Union, and Britain to develop computing and electronic systems that paved the way for modern-day drones.

In the late 1990s, the US Air Force started researching the possibilities of arming pilotless planes with missiles.It is worth noting that prior to the September 11th attacks, drone warfare was a relatively unknown concept in the public arena.