to conduct an independent assessment of civilian casualties resulting from drone strikes in Pakistan and elsewhere. Overall, it is both possible and worthwhile for the U.S. Although there are key differences in the two campaigns, this observation warrants further examination (also reserved for a subsequent paper). We observe that drone strikes in Pakistan were more likely to cause civilian casualties on average than drone strikes by military forces in Afghanistan. government would be best suited for continuing the drone campaign. (A forthcoming paper will provide both additional analysis and a model of an overall assessment process.)Ĭivilian casualties are one consideration in the debate concerning which department or agency of the U.S. An assess ment process could improve this rate, and such a process is briefly outlined at the end of this paper. However, there remains room for improvement, as drone strikes conducted since 2011 still appear to cause civilian casualties about 8 percent of the time, though this number decreased sharply in 2013. has improved its ability to reduce civilian casualties during drone strikes in Pakistan over the past several years, as measured in the percentage of strikes causing civilian casualties and the number of civilian casualties occurring per incident. In that case, failure to recognize and mitigate factors besides the platform in the targeting process resulted in an increased risk to civilians from the use of drones, despite some desirable characteristics of those systems.ĬNA analyzed publically available data to determine the likelihood of civilian harm per strike in the drone campaign in Pakistan. This point is illustrated in Afghanistan, where analysis showed that engagements by drones (2010- 2011) were ten times more likely to result in civilian casualties than engagements from manned platforms. The characteristics of a weapon platform-in this case drones-are nottheonly factor in reducing civilian casualties other factors like planning and training must be taken into consideration in claims of precision and discrimination. This suggests a misunderstanding of how civilian casualties occur. Official statements also feature a common description of the drone platform as surgical with respect to civilian casualties. Factors include an irregular enemy, the challenge of misidentifications, the tendency of air-based assessments to produce inaccurate assessments of resultant harm, and processes that assign civilian status to casualties more narrowly than in applicable international law. estimates for civilian casualties caused by drone strikes in Pakistan could reasonably be too low. operations in Afghanistan, and is likely to be even more difficult for operations without a ground force in remote locations such as western Pakistan. For example, recognition-and thus acknowledgement-of civilian casualties was a challenge in U.S. government statements and other reports is that civilian casualties from air strikes can be difficult to recognize when they occur. One possible reason for this discrepancy between U.S. while simultaneously limiting freedom of action and complicating relations with other nations. operations also affect national security, fueling threats to the U.S. ethical principles regarding the conduct of war, civilian casualties from U.S. However, available data-open source data on Pakistan drone strikes, as well as data on air operations in Afghanistan, including drone operations-points to higher casualty numbers than suggested in official statements. government has described its drone campaign in Pakistan and elsewhere as causing minimal civilian casualties. Sadly, that's not possible in the confines of a Las Vegas exhibition hall, but all going well, we'll remedy that later in the week.The U.S. Of course, looks are one thing another is seeing it do its job. The six sets of rotors give it a more aggressive appearance, and the blue front props add a splash of color. In the fairly utilitarian world of multirotor-design, it's a stealthy-looking piece of kit. Finally, here at CES, we get a look at the drone itself. With just the occasional teaser clip of sample video to whet the appetite. Until now, though, any evidence of a physical Hexo+ had remained out of view. A rivalry no doubt heightened by the fact that both campaigns bagged almost identical amounts of money ($1.3 million) in funding. We actually saw it back in the summer when it launched on Kickstarter the same week as that other follow-you drone, AirDog. Hexo+ is no new kid on the block, though. If you're in the market for a drone, you won't be short of choices in 2015, if CES is anything to go by.
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