Drones, Mysterious Flying Robots: The Eyes and the Fire of the 21st Century

One hundred years after the beginnings of piloted aviation, aerial drones, at the centre of numerous technological innovations, are coming of age. Born of a need to know everything about the enemy, they are the unmanned aerial vehicles of the modern era. For some twenty years they have been appearing in specialist media. Due to the limited knowledge of the subject, they remain shrouded in mystery for many of us, belonging as they do to a secret world that unsettles us. Military drones, civilian drones — they are becoming widespread and indispensable for surveillance in certain civilian applications, for intelligence gathering and, to a lesser extent, for combat in the armed forces. They were glimpsed in the 1960s in Vietnam. They appeared early in Israel. They were seen in 1991 in Iraq, then in Kosovo and in Afghanistan. It is from daily current events in the civilian world and from the imperatives of war that their need arose, and therefore their doctrine of employment. But, apart from a few specialists, what do we really know about the impact of this new instrument of power — robot or intelligent system — on our everyday lives and behaviour? What are these mysterious flying robots? What missions do "the eyes and the fire" of the 21st century carry out? The book provides a clear, factual and positive response to the subject, while tracing the historical path that has generated the current need. It profiles drone systems by type, by family, by country, without overlooking their strengths and weaknesses, their experimental programmes and their operational employment. The authors address the social phenomenon they provoke with their own personal perspective. The lifting of secrecy demystifies the unmanned aerial vehicle — the new branch of aeronautics.