Drones for Bundeswehr

Newsletter 2013/01/10 – Fully Mechanized Warfare

BERLIN (Own report) – German government advisors in Berlin are urging
utter restraint in acquiring drones for the German Bundeswehr and
pleading that fully automatic weapons platforms be internationally
outlawed. The use of so-called combat drones in fighting insurgency is
already fraught with dramatic repercussions, according to a recent
paper published by the German Institute for International and Security
Affairs (SWP). Restraints imposed by the laws of war are being
dismantled. Because wars using drones can be waged without sacrificing
one’s own soldiers, there is a worldwide threat of an inflation of
military interventions. However, one must especially take into account
the continued technological development of drones. With the increased
complexity of their capabilities, the human factor will no longer be
in command, but merely serve, at best, to confirm or reject
suggestions produced by the machine. Under such circumstances,
“factual autonomy of human decision making” will no longer be ensured
in combat, warns SWP. The think tank envisages, in light of the
continuing barbarization of the use of military force, a new type of
arms control for drones. However, the German government is pursuing
the path leading in the opposite direction, contemplating acquiring
combat drones for the Bundeswehr.
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