<nettime> [drone_roundup] Weekly Roundup

[Center for the Study of the Drone <csd@bard.edu>]

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At the Center for the Study of the Drone

Drones are heating up the territorial
dispute<http://dronecenter.bard.edu/act-war-drones-testing-china-japan-relations/>between
China and Japan over the Senkaku Islands. At the same time, China
is expanding research and production of their own drones and Japan is
considering political and military reforms. These developments could bring
about a major shift in the regional strategic dynamic.



News

The Federal Aviation Administration released a ?road map? for the
integration
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/faa-advances-plan-to-put-drones-in-us-skies-six-test-sites-to-be-selected/2013/11/07/44bb5800-47cb-11e3-bf0c-cebf37c6f484_story.html>of
unmanned aerial systems into U.S. airspace. The document
<http://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/uas/>discusses the status of the
selection process for drone test sites and announces a new aviation-control
system called ?NextGen.? The FAA acknowledged that the integration of
drones might take longer than expected. (Washington Post)

In response to the FAA roadmap, which prompted
criticism<http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303309504579183711382731676>from
politicians and commentators, Senator Markey introduced a bill that
would require law enforcement
<http://www.nationaljournal.com/daily/senator-pushes-for-protection-from-drones-prying-eyes-20131105>agencies
to obtain a warrant before using an unmanned aircraft. The Association for
Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) criticized the bill as
unfairly targeting drones. ?Who cares if the pilot is on the ground versus
in the actual aircraft,? said Ben Gielow, the government-relations manager
of AUVSI. (Wall Street Journal  and National Journal)

In a closed session, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to increase
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/08/us-usa-drones-idUSBRE9A713G20131108>Congressional
oversight of the administration?s targeted killing program. If both the
Senate and the House approve the bill, the President will have to release a
yearly report on the number of drone strikes and the numbers of civilian
casualties caused by strikes. (Reuters)

The Pakistani political party Tehreek-e-Insaf has voted to block NATO
supplies
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/world/asia/pakistani-party-votes-to-block-nato-supply-lines-if-drone-strikes-persist.html?_r=0>to
Afghanistan until the United States ends drone strikes. Tehreek-e-Insaf
controls the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in northwest Pakistan, where a
critical supply line connects Karachi to Kabul. Imran Khan, chairman of the
party and outspoken critic of the strikes, blamed American targeted
killings for the breakdown of peace talks between Islamabad and the
Taliban. (New York Times)

Writing for Foreign Policy magazine, Gordon Lubold and Shane Harris
reported that efforts to transfer drone operations
<http://killerapps.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/11/05/cia_pentagon_drone_war_control?wp_login_redirect=0>from
the Central Intelligence Agency to the Pentagon have stalled. According to
officials, the process has been marred by logistical difficulties,
differences in operational approaches, and an unwillingness to ?fix a
program that [the CIA and DoD] don't think is broken.?


Commentary, Analysis and Art

In a podcast on Lawfare
blog<http://www.lawfareblog.com/2013/11/lawfare-podcast-episode-47-matt-and-ken-speak-at-hoover-on-autonomous-weapons/>,
Matthew Waxman and Kenneth Anderson discuss autonomous weapons and ?killer
robots? at Stanford University?s Hoover Institution.

Jens Iverson continues the discussion
<http://opiniojuris.org/2013/11/06/drone-reports-can-members-armed-groups-targeted/>
about the Amnesty and Human Rights Watch reports on drone strikes by
questioning their interpretation of international humanitarian law. ?Even
if one has never directly participated in hostilities, they may still be
targeted, if one?s function involves (potential) direct participation,?
writes Iverson. (Opino Juris)

Also on Opino Juris, Deborah Pearlstein questions why the CIA
halted<http://opiniojuris.org/2013/11/06/cias-approach-drones/>the
plan to transfer drone strikes from Langley to the Pentagon. ?It is
thus just such suggestions of different processes surrounding targeting
that are most concerning,? Pearlstein writes.

Thomas Gibbons-Neff, a Marine veteran of Afghanistan, considers the high
levels of post-traumatic stress disorder among drone
pilots<http://warontherocks.com/2013/11/killing-and-the-drone-warrior/>.
?There is no struggle, nothing anchoring him to the reality of war. There
is only the killing,? writes Gibbons-Neff at War on the Rocks blog.


Writing for Jewish Journal, Rob Eshman reflects on the complexity of the
moral concerns
<http://www.jewishjournal.com/cover_story/article/the_torah_of_drones_examining_the_complex_morality_of_drone_warfare#.UnvfvdmHmz0.twitter>raised
by drone technology, and considers whether there is an acceptable and
viable set of ethical guidelines that govern the way drones are used now,
and the way the may be used in the future.

The New York Times Lens blog interviews the pilot of a World War
II<http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/11/battle-scars-still-stinging-70-years-later/?_r=1&;>photo
reconnaissance aircraft, the technical predecessor of the
surveillance drone.


Know Your Drone

The New York *Times* published a video of a new Chinese drone that appears
to be similar<http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/new-chinese-drone-unveiled-in-video/>to
Northrop Grumman?s Global Hawk high-altitude surveillance
drone.

The nuclear research company Sandia has developed a concept for a drone
that can fly, float, hop or
roll<http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/11/transformer-drone/>.
(Wired)

Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Tokyo have actually built a
drone that can fly, float and
roll<http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/quadcopter-can-fly-float-or-roll>.
(DIY Drones)

A team of Australian entrepreneurs have attached a projector to a
quadcopter<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKhzvFIAyJw>,
creating a portable advertising machine that can project either stills or
moving image advertisements on the sides of buildings. (Newsline)

Researchers at the consulting firm Frost & Sullivan have estimated that
there will be 6 million semi- and fully-autonomous
robots<http://www.just-auto.com/news/autonomous-vehicles-in-use-europe-and-na-forecast-at-6m-by-2025_id139724.aspx>in
Europe and North America by 2025. In other words, there will be more
robots than Danish people. (Just-Auto)


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