Three days into his presidency, Barack Obama ordered his first drone strikes. Over the next eight years, he oversaw a massive expansion of the US programme of targeted killings using armed drones. The initial appeal was that the US did not risk its personnel, and strikes could be carried out without attracting much attention and, supposedly, with more precision – though civilian deaths were ignored or played down.
But in the ensuing years, drone wars have undergone a dramatic evolution. Never before have so many drones been used, so intensely. The US programme relied on expensive Predator drones costing about $12m (£9.5m). But much cheaper drones made by Turkey, Iran and China have been credited for victories, including Ethiopia’s reversal of the rapid advance of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, and for damaging attacks by non-state actors. In 2021, Gen Kenneth McKenzie, then commander of US Central Command, observed: “For the first time since the Korean war, we are operating without complete air superiority.”
