31 Jan '16 21:35>
Apparently the NSA in an internal memo boasted that they had cracked Israeli drones and could see everything the Israeli drone handlers could. The allegations come from Snowden's leak. The Israeli minister Yuval Steinitz said that he wasn't surprised as the Americans spy on everyone.
Aside from the issue of ethics in International Relations this does raise the question of how secure a drone is. It is a little difficult to hack a human pilot so that he turns round and bombs his own people. With a drone this appears to be possible, with the added problem that the hackers need not automatically be state players, or, even if they are, feel obliged to obey the normal rules of war regarding strategic bombing since the propaganda advantage of an apparent own goal would probably outweigh any concerns about enemy civilians and one would have to prove that it was the enemy that did it. The future of aerial warfare seems to be going in the direction of drones so I wonder what people think.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-35440523
Aside from the issue of ethics in International Relations this does raise the question of how secure a drone is. It is a little difficult to hack a human pilot so that he turns round and bombs his own people. With a drone this appears to be possible, with the added problem that the hackers need not automatically be state players, or, even if they are, feel obliged to obey the normal rules of war regarding strategic bombing since the propaganda advantage of an apparent own goal would probably outweigh any concerns about enemy civilians and one would have to prove that it was the enemy that did it. The future of aerial warfare seems to be going in the direction of drones so I wonder what people think.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-35440523