DailyPost 1085
DRONES OF WAR
If you go through the disturbing developments in the last few days the world over, it seems to be sure now that drones have already become weapons of war, terrorism, protest, crime and the like and there is little possibility of the situation changing in the near future. The world has always paid a heavy price for not having been able to regulate new technologies. The rules based national or international order does not work in case of technologies as there would always be rogue states, terrorist groups and mafias. Developing technologies to effectively prevent, monitor and finally stop and respond to these onslaughts has to happen.
The journey from Aug the 4th 2018 when Madura was attacked in Venezuela to the attack on the processor and a major oilfield of Suadi Aramco on early Saturday is a journey of years covered in one by criminal players independent of each other. The Houthi rebels of Yemen have used drones since the beginning of Saudi led war years back starting from off-the-shelf models to later versions nearly identical to Iranian models. Teheran denies its supply. Drones flown by them into the radar arrays of Saudi Arabia’s Patriot missile batteries disabled them and ”allowing them to fire ballistic missiles into the kingdom unchallenged.”
The stark warnings have gone unheeded. The largest refinery in the world has been attacked cutting down Saudi production by half. ”A successful attack on Abqaiq would be akin to a massive heart attack for the oil market and global economy.” The unthinkable has happened. Aramco describes Abqaiq facility as the largest crude oil stabilisation plant in the world, processing around 7m barrels every day.
Yemen’s Iran aligned Houthi rebels claimed the responsibility for the strikes stating that 10 drones were deployed in the attack. This is the beginning of technology enabled and facilitated Asymmetric War. A country and world can be brought to its knees. On the other hand, the Environmental protestors are trying to use drones to bring flights to halt since Friday at London’s Heathrow. Drones are holding the world hostage.
UNCONTROLLED DRONES CAN BE OUR NEMESIS.
Sanjay Sahay