War by remote control, how drones changed modern warfare
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How are drones reshaping modern warfare?
We seek to leave you seeing the world anew. Radiolab adventures right on the edge of what we think we know. Wherever you get podcasts. When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently spoke to the Senate Armed Services Committee, he talked about the massive amounts of money the U.S. military wants to dedicate to its drone program. You're looking at $54 billion in the FY27 budget dedicated to drone dominance. Drone dominance isn't just a buzzword. It's the Defense Department initiative to scale up its drone program. And the money being requested has been called, quote, the largest single commitment to autonomous warfare in history. In other words, drone AI. Drones have reshaped warfare and given all kinds of countries a powerful weapon.
President Trump attended the dignified transfer of the remains of the first Americans killed in the war. On the day after the U.S. and Israel launched war against Iran, an Iranian drone made it past air defenses in Kuwait, striking a U.S. command center at a civilian port.
What is the significance of drone dominance in military budgets?
Six Army reservists killed by an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait. They were the first U.S. casualties in the war. Since then, thousands of drone strikes have been launched throughout the Middle East. And it's catching the U.S. off guard. The Pentagon has begun a huge push to buy hundreds of thousands of small attack drones. They were once the domain of major militaries, but they are now spreading rapidly. They are cheap, efficient, and easy to dispatch. Now the fastest growing sector in the Ukrainian economy. Russia, which was already using AI to automate how its drones pick targets, now has begun experimenting with fully autonomous systems. Even in the war between Ukraine and Russia, drones have allowed a much smaller, less powerful country to defend against a superior one.
Although most of the hundreds of thousands of drone strikes have come from Russia, in some places a nightly occurrence, Ukraine has been able to strike back with accuracy and increased cadence. Drones are responsible for about three-quarters of that war's casualties. Drones are also being used in civil wars in Myanmar and Sudan. This year, there's been a surge in attacks. And while many drones never reach their destinations, intercepted by intricate defense systems, those that do can demolish anything from a single soldier to entire bridges and beyond. And the ability to be more precise than, say, carpet bombing, plays into a larger narrative that many politicians on all sides sell to us, that somehow technology can make war less ugly, less costly, and more distant.
This is what war historian James Rogers calls war by remote control. And that remoteness isn't just in the technology, but it's also in our minds as well. Because no one's going to write a letter to the family of a drone if it gets shot down. It is a robot in the sky. That is the point. It has zero risk of taking a drone out to American military lives. Now, of course, it has lots of risk to civilians within that theatre of conflict.
How have drones changed the dynamics of warfare in Ukraine and Russia?
But it means that you have that public disconnect and that democratic disconnect to the conflict of which you're involved in and what you're waging. As more and more countries embrace this war by remote control, we have to confront some difficult questions. What is the cost of distance? How does it change the way we as a society think about killing? And what happens when precision attacks go wrong? So on this episode of ThruLine from NPR, we're exploring the past, present, and future of drone warfare. Because one thing is clear. This is just the beginning. This is Tori in Corvallis, Oregon, and you're listening to ThruLine from NPR. This message comes from Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian. Host Lizzie Peabody sneaks you behind the scenes of the nation's largest museum to discover stories of history, science, art, and culture.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How are drones reshaping modern warfare?
0:00–1:16
2
What is the significance of drone dominance in military budgets?
1:16–3:30
3
How have drones changed the dynamics of warfare in Ukraine and Russia?
3:30–8:35
4
What ethical considerations arise from drone warfare?
8:35–11:30
5
What historical context led to the development of drone technology?
11:30–21:18
6
How did drones evolve during the Vietnam War?
21:18–28:40
7
What role did drones play in the Iraq War and Operation Desert Storm?
28:40–33:58
8
What are the future implications of drone warfare on international relations?
33:58–53:17