aircraft are becoming a ubiquitous battlefield presence.

And frankly, I think we're in the middle of an underground

drone arms race and larger drones like the mq nine Reaper,

as well as medium sized drones such as the Turkish TB two and

the Chinese wing loonged II have become a must have item for

militaries worldwide. At the moment we've seen we see like

over 100 states worldwide are using military drones and that

number is growing significantly in Libya, Nagorno Karabakh, and

during the US Global War on Terror. armed drones have been

active across the globe. These drones can fly 1000s of feet

high and rain down destruction with pinpoint accuracy with

little warning. But who makes these high tech weapons of war?

It is not very easy to develop armed drones but it also is not

quite as difficult as say developing new nuclear weapons.

And who is buying them.

Drone technology isn't that new. During World War Two the US

remotely piloted A B 17 as part of a test program and during the

Cold War drones were used to spy on other countries. The SR-71

even had a rocket powered drone that it could deploy in flight

to take photos to be retrieved later. Drones date back much

longer to early flight but like the modern drones basically

trace their origin to the 80s. The convergence of satellite

technology composites and computer miniaturization allowed

for the rise of drones like the General Atomics mq one predator.

General Atomics, which includes ga aeronautical Systems Inc, are

one of the leading producers of unmanned systems in the world.

They currently produce the mq nine Reaper as well as the naval

version, the sea Guardian among other unmanned systems. In the

2000s. The predator was armed with missiles, which quietly

started a new arms race. It had the ability to stay overhead for

long periods of time, and it could be controlled by a ground

station in another country. The drone became the face of us

conflicts in the Middle East. And moral and legal questions

about drone use rose from the targeted killing campaigns that

the US operates to this day. In 2001, the mq nine Reaper made

its first flight and eventually became the dominant arm drone

that the US fielded. The Reaper has a payload of 3850 pounds,

which compares to the predators 450 pounds. This means it can

carry far more missiles or bombs than the predator among other

advantages. But what will eventually replace the hundreds

of Reaper drones has yet to be revealed. One current General

Atomics aeronautical project as seen in this General Atomics

video is the Avenger the US military has not adopted the

Avenger for frontline service. The advanced drone is designed

to be stealthy and survivable against modern air defenses,

which could make it a window into what the drone of the

future will look like that replaces the mq nine, the US

government the US military will never fight another war without

drone technology ever again. But unfortunately, I feel like as a

whole, we are no longer have the advantage. countries around the

world have taken notice of the investment the US is pouring

into larger drones. And they've made efforts to buy these game

changing drones themselves.

The US has been judicious about what countries that allows

General Atomics to sell to. We have put too much of an emphasis

on restricting exports to countries that are in need of

this technology countries that are friendly to us because we've

wanted to maintain that airspace dominance. The mq nine requires

a ground station satellite links and maintenance for its high

tech hardware and software. And this means the mq nines

ballooning price point of around $32 million has dissuaded some

perspective buyers allies like Australia have shown interest in

buying the mq nine B and the US State Department cleared a $1.6

billion deal in late April for 12, Sky guardians and all

associated equipment but the demand for more affordable

drones hasn't subsided, leading to others filling the needs of

the market. What's interesting to note is that for many years,

about a decade or so before, the US and Israel basically had a

monopoly over more sophisticated armed drone systems. And neither

of them were really keen on exporting, Israel was one of the

earliest adopters of drone technology and also one of the

first exporters' however these exported drones are generally

unarmed, making them less useful against military targets. And

partly because there was this almost export ban. A number of

other actors started to develop their own domestic armed drones,

most notably China and Turkey. China's Chengdu aircraft

industry group has produced the wing loong series of drones. The

price point of the wing long to which runs an estimated one to

$2 million has made it up

Popular addition to militaries in Africa and the Middle East,

Russia is likely to try to eventually export its homegrown

Orion drone, and Turkey which has made a strong push in recent

decades to build an aerospace industry has produced one of the

most infamous medium sized drones. The Baykar defense

produced TB2 to which is controlled by line of sight has

made an impact in Nagorno Karabakh and in Libya. Several

countries including Ukraine, which signed a $69 million

contract for armed TB2s in 2019 have ordered the Turkish drone,

and more potential buyers could be wooed by the highlight reel

of the TB2 taking our modern tanks in real world situations.

These highlight reels of destruction haven't been all

upside for the new entry to the armed drone market.

Some armed drones have been regulated as missiles under

international law. I think our policymakers need to adapt the

policy for the 21st century and understand that there's many

different actors using drone technology and they're using

them in different ways. The Missile Technology Control

Regime or mtcr restricts the export of missiles capable of

carrying a 500 kilogram payload at least 300 kilometers. This is

why some drones are considered missiles under the mtcr. The US

has previously limited what drones can be sold to other

countries due to the mtcr. Sort of the big drone export news

changed last summer

when the Trump administration decided to loosen some

restrictions on what the United States could expert the Biden

administration has so far upheld that relaxed restriction Canada

and Germany are two countries that have banned the export of

key materials used to make armed drones in Turkey and Iran

respectively. In the end, drones are just you know, model

airplanes with great sensors on them. And all of these are, you

know, dual use and simply used in the civilian realm. And in

fact, the drones have risen enormously in the civilian realm

over the last five to 10 years. And so so controlling their

export is is really difficult. And I would also note that it is

not that difficult to to develop these systems. What happens when

everyone can buy a quadcopter or a fixed wing drone for a couple

100 bucks. Some manufacturers of non military drones have put in

safeguards, like geo fencing to prevent drones from being

weaponized. geo fencing is a preset limitation on where drone

can be flown. airports are commonly fenced off to prevent

drones from interfering with airport operations. Civilian

drones can also be used for all kinds of really helpful

applications from agricultural use to checks and controls etc.

So how do you control those kinds of things, there are also

concerns about the ethical problems with using armed

drones. So for example, the large scale drone campaign

started by bush and expanded under Obama.

We saw the increased use of armed drones for targeted

executions and increasing numbers of civilians who were

killed in those kind of operations who didn't have any

access to accountability and in reparations, because technically

the program didn't exist.

Large armed drones aren't going away. Bayker is working on a

larger drone called the Akinci which can be satellite

controlled and has a larger payload. China also appears to

be working towards fielding a newly developed armed drone. But

advances in technology are allowing smaller drones to

tackle missions that previously would have only been possible

with a larger drone. So when I see conflicts, like what's

taking place in Syria, or with Russia, starting to use these

all over the world, and not even just the type of drones that you

would think are multimillion dollar drones, we're talking

about drones that a kid can purchase off of the Internet,

and anyone that has savvy knowledge of how to turn these

things into deadly weapons has the ability. Unfortunately,

these days to do something bad with it. Drone swarms are dozens

or hundreds of drones operating in unison that can overwhelm

defenses. And loitering munitions like the Herot which

is produced in Israel are blurring the line between cruise

missile and drone and with regard to geese, loitering

munitions or camicazi, drones or whatever you want to call them.

These are primarily at this point produced by Israel. Both

are systems that basically go into the air they they loiter

for a while, search for a target and then dive into the car to

target and explode with it. This is why they're called Kamikaze

drones because they you know, they don't come back they they

destroy themselves new types of armed drones, potential civilian

casualties and the legal gray area of targeted killings are

all issues that the drone industry will need to contend

with in the coming years. The biggest challenge at the moment,

how does technology which is always two steps ahead of

regulation, how can we ensure that it doesn't get out of hand