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US May Sell Armed Drones
An anonymous reader writes: Nations allied with the United States may soon be able to purchase armed, unmanned aircraft, according to an updated U.S. arms policy. Purchase requests will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, and foreign military bodies would have to agree to a set of "proper use" rules in order for the U.S. to go ahead with the sale. For example: "Armed and other advanced UAS are to be used in operations involving the use of force only when there is a lawful basis for use of force under international law, such as national self-defense." These rules have done nothing to silence critics of the plan, who point out that the U.S. has killed civilians during remote strikes without much accountability. The drones are estimated to cost $10-15 million apiece.
Exporting weapons that wind up being used against our own troops is fairly commonplace in this scenario, but hey, it's all about the corporate profits baby!
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Drones are cool when only rich nation states can afford them, but it's only a matter of time before anybody can buy them, and payback will probably be "a bitch" as they say.
They have put a kill switch in them somewhere ... Juuust incase one of those nations discovers that they are sitting on oil ..
This sounds so much like a star trek episode i have seen before. On top of that "see the white of their eye's" (Don't shoot until...) changes in an historical sense. Next thing you know we will have MEC's running around and World subjugation will commence (tongue in cheek).
Being a Military guy once ago i feel this is way different than the way we did stuff.
I'm just expressing something and i hope i don't get slammed too much but i feel it's lame.
I'm here for the experience, not the Hyperbole.
As an American myself, I really can't find any fault there. I have been saying basically the same to my countrymen for years. That said, its not us.....its the Aristocratic ruling class that we wont admit exists.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
You are mistaken Mr/Mrs. it is not the whole country that is doing this shit it's the 1%.
I'm here for the experience, not the Hyperbole.
When will those of us in the flyover states be able to buy our own armed drones?
Youtube is filled with entertaining videos of rednecks with guns and explosives. Armed drones would help take this to a whole new level. Think BattleBots with truly no holds barred.
Sure, there may be some people who would want to use these for illegal purposes, but think of all the benefits. Imagine a new service for stalking victims - counter-stalking drones, now with a "resolve" button.
(For the humor impaired, yes, I'm kidding)
foreign military bodies would have to agree to a set of "proper use" rules in order for the U.S. to go ahead with the sale
Those rules are as follows:
That is all.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
That said, its not us.....its the Aristocratic ruling class that we wont admit exists.
Then it is us. Only we can put and end to it, primarily by not acquiescing so easily.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
So, I'm not sure why this is even being considered. Why not sell man-pack, shoulder-mount weapons..you know, without the actual ammunition while we're at it? If the military is all up in arms over a drone that goes down and isn't confirmed destroyed, lest someone get a hold of the parts and reverse-engineer it, why would you agree to sell one? Oh, sure, they'll agree to "proper use" of it, but that wouldn't keep them from tearing it apart and making their own copies, will it? I mean, that's just a piece of paper that's been signed, right? Not actually something that will keep the buyer from changing their mind.
Seriously.
Awk! Pieces of eight. Pieces of eight. Pieces of seven... ERROR: General Protection Fault. [Paroty Error.]
It's the 99% that let them. They are slightly outnumbered, you know.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Is this one of those "Do as I say, not as I do" things?
I bet it's one of those "Do as I say, not as I do" things.
Ground forces, however do. It's time to take the kid gloves off and let the US Army have a free hand at deploying troops against these targets instead. Ground forces say you're committed in a way drones never will. They also tend to produce far fewer non-combatant casualties.
And while we're at it, you want to defund ISIS? Obama could start to weaken them by simply announcing on in a press conference that he has given permission to the DNI and SOCOM to start assassinating any foreign national found intentionally supplying funds to ISIS. Live in Qatar and send them money? Too bad. CIA will slit your throat and dump your body in the gulf if they find you.
Well, anyway the drones will be produced privately elsewhere soon if not already. No one's putting this genie back in a bottle. Reminds me of when it was illegal to export 286 computers in the late 1990s.
"Click to Hit" Go online, create a user profile, enter photo of your enemy into our facial recognition software, and our private security drone will execute your enemy in 3-5 business days.
Gently reply
And, really, a huge amount of that 99% are saying "as long as we're safe we don't give a crap what you do and who you do it to".
Pretending this isn't happening with the approval of the rest of America is a lie.
Maybe not all Americans, but enough to say that American's can't just say it's the 1% doing it.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I worry about the day when they start selling them to domestic law enforcement agencies.
Hey, I'm not the one pissing and moaning about the 'aristocracy'. I'm just offering you an out.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Expect to see these drones in Ukraine soon, then. Not that the change in the policy was needed, since US is providing to the ally Israel, but it does seem as a message to Russians that they will see drones soon in the war zones of Donbas and Crimea.
Had Ukraine had drones six month ago, or better a year ago, their situation would have been much different and they would not need to go through shameful and humiliating "decisions to withdraw" time after time. Sort of a disgrace for a 5th largest weapons exporter in the world, industrial powerhouse, rocket builder and a formerly nuclear country , but we digress here.
Yes, we know that the war is a significant contributor to the scientific research, however expect these UAV to be battle tested in Ukraine against most modern Russian radio-electronic warfare methods.
America sells weapons? Who'd a thunk it...
That is all.
Fuck it, just let Bush and Clinton run on the same ticket. Call it Clinton Bush ticket. Everybody will be happy. Then every month they can take turns as to who is on top.
You can't handle the truth.
And you let them through the 'There is nothing we can do' or 'nothing to hide nothing to fear' arguments
There is something we can do. But that requires a majority of us to decide to stop playing their game, and start playing one that's more cooperative. Those of us who are wise to the game can't just make it happen on our own. That's the kind of fantasy that the anti-gun-nuts imagine that gun owners of America have. It requires broad community support.
Even local politics is generally dominated by money. It's going to take a paradigm shift in what it takes to get voter mindshare to change things substantially.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
"Country A sells aircraft and munitions to other countries." How is this different than anything in the last 100 years?
/. article.
Oh wait....there's that magic word, 'drone'.
Guaranteed
First the drones are the kindest weapon of war ever invented. Compared to other modes of fighting drones kill far less innocents. For example we can use a drone to take out a car with enemies in the car. Fifty years ago we might have leveled an entire town to make sure we hit that car. Obviously war always involves some innocents caught in the middle. The question is ho many. Drones also cost us less than other weapons of war. And we have no dead or injured troops that must be supported for life as drones take the hit rather than flesh being hit. And now we find that just like we sold cannons to friendly governments centuries ago we can make even more money selling drones to friendly nations. This actually follows a trend in international economics. Now we worry about whether our drones are better than the other sides drones. But in our economics we now must be certain that our robot like devices work better and cheaper than China's automated equipment. Go to a machining technology fair and watch companies argue exactly that their automated factory machinery works better, cheaper, and longer than the other companies hawking their wares. Our government follows that model. Get along nicely with the US and we will give you drones that kick ass for peanuts.
I'm curious to know who this collective "we" is that you're talking about. There is a lot that the United States does that is cause for concern, but there's also plenty the US does to help. You give me the impression that either you're either ignorant about everything that happens around the world or you're very selective about where you get your news.
As for the US military, for a whole host of reasons the US is endlessly doing Europe's dirty work. They sure are averse to getting involved, even when something's happening in their own backyard or their own meddling was the source of those problems. And in the end, while Europe enjoys the luxury of keeping its hands clean they have no shame in getting on their high horse about American involvement around the world.
Of course, the US could always take the Chinese approach of superficially not getting involved in anything, but supporting oppressive regimes so that they can strip nations of their resources. Take a look at what they're doing in Africa.
It's gonna get nasty in the not-so-far future. We're ging to get a bigger taste of our own exports. Pity we couldn't make anything useful instead.
"SO we bide our time, waiting for a purer kick to bloom and the future is still bleak, uncertain and beautiful" -GSYBE
Where does the revenue from the sales go? It'd be nice to see it go to schools/education in some way, but I am sure it'll go to waste at the Pentagon some how.
geek n performer who performs morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken
Warmongers are gonna warmonger. The UK are already using American drones, if this is NEWS then they must have been gifts from the states?
I think Kruchev said it best "Politicians are the same all over; they promise to build a bridge, even where there is no river".
Doesn't matter what the claimed ideology, doesn't matter the system, people in power will say whatever they have to say, truth or not, sequitor or not, if it means staying in power. Power and principles are mostly mutually exclusive.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Have gnu, will travel.
I can't think of a single thing...
I listen to folks talk about not letting the mentally ill have access to firearms, yet we give nuclear launch codes and near unlimited power to folks who consult astrologers ( Reagan ) and have beliefs in imaginary deities ( every US President, ever ) who use such beliefs and information to help formulate both their foreign and domestic policy.
Truly, the inmates run the asylum.
Nonsense. The US does its own dirty work for its own purposes. It doesn't help Europe out for Europe's sake. Europe has been involved in every military action in recent years, in many different roles. Stop pretending the US is some bastion of goodness when it comes to military action - it's not. If it were, it wouldn't have overthrown democracy after democracy time and time again, then got all surprised when "their guy" either turned on them, or got kicked out and replaced with someone vehemently anti-US.
The Chinese approach you describe is the non-military American approach. The US has been doing that for decades. That you don't know this pertinent fact kind of shows you are not in possession of all the facts. Just research the "School of the Americas" to see just how dedicated to this tactic the US has been.
The real problem is size. Make the system big enough spanning enough territory and enough people and it can be so distant from them as to basically be an abstract.
I did a quick back of the envelope calculation once looking at approximate number of eligible voters at the country's founding, vs now and number of federal reps/senators then and now. Do you have any concept of how the system has utterly failed to scale?
for representation levels to be similar to the founding.... we would need approximately 100k people....IN CONGRESS.
The idea that around 500 or so people can represent 300 million is just absolute farce. They couldn't hope to if they even wanted to.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Are you sure it's Ron Paul? I didn't read the whole thing, but I thought he was fellating Vladimir Putin.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
and this is of course: Where can I get one??? :P
The rest of the article is not relevant
-- 29A the number of the Beast
Some countries just want to see the world burn. I have lately decided the real reason wages have been flat in the united states sense the 70s is that is when we started sending vast amounts of our wealth overseas in the form of foldable cash to buy off people. It all disappears into the black hole.