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.

Comments

Nobody gets to use the surprise face

[rmdingler]

Weapons, entertainment, and food are pretty much the bulk of American exports.

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!

Re:Nobody gets to use the surprise face

[rmdingler]

We work hard to prevent nuclear proliferation ... why not prevent advanced drone proliferation as well?

They're just not that difficult to manufacture.

If American military developers are not allowed to sell theirs, someone else will.

The market share of worldwide death-dealing is a real thing.

Re:Nobody gets to use the surprise face

[tsqr]

Weapons, entertainment, and food are pretty much the bulk of American exports.

Actually, no. In 2013, the US was the second largest exporter of arms ($6.2 billion), after Russia ($8.3 billion). And because you probably won't read the linked article, I should mention that these numbers include the estimated value of arms given as foreign aid. But those numbers are dwarfed by the real heavyweights.

Top ten US exports in 2013:

1. Machines, engines, pumps: US$219,566,232,000 (13.5% of total exports)
2. Electronic equipment: $171,966,197,000 (10.6%)
3. Oil: $157,213,437,000 (9.7%)
4. Vehicles: $135,797,903,000 (8.4%)
5. Aircraft, spacecraft: $124,831,567,000 (7.7%)
6. Medical, technical equipment: $84,879,104,000 (5.2%)
7. Gems, precious metals, coins: $65,522,480,000 (4.0%)
8. Plastics: $63,025,216,000 (3.9%)
9. Pharmaceuticals: $43,967,977,000 (2.7%)
10. Organic chemicals: $42,255,264,000 (2.6%)

Re:Face it America ...

[TheCarp]

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.

Expect to see them in Ukraine

[Trachman]

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.