THE IMPORTANCE OF DRONES IN MODERN WARFARE AND ARMED CONFLICTS

Prof. Dr. Valery MODEBADZE

Abstract

 This article analyzes the importance of drones in modern warfare and armed conflicts.  It explains how states and non-state actors use drones for various purposes.  The United States of America was the first country globally to use drones twenty years ago to eliminate dangerous terrorists.  George W. Bush was the first president of USA who used drones for counterterrorism operations in different countries. Drones proved to be very effective tool during the war on terror.  If USA used drones only as killing machines for the elimination of terrorists, Azerbaijan was the first country that used them for military purposes in the war against Armenia.  The massive usage of drones by the armed forces first took place in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 2020. This conflict often referred to as the "war of drones," demonstrated how effective drones could be in modern warfare if used wisely and rationally.  This conflict has shown that even a small state can achieve total air supremacy in the conflict if it uses drones properly and effectively.  After the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, the number of states willing to purchase drones has increased considerably.  However, it is also noteworthy that not only states are interested in drones, but also terrorist organizations and aggressive non-state actors.   Many terrorist organizations have started to use drones in order to achieve their goals.  One of the main challenges that faces states today is to develop effective defense mechanisms to neutralize and eliminate threats coming from drones quickly. The research question of this paper is: how did the usage of drones affected modern warfare and what are the advantages and disadvantages of the massive usage of drones?  The main goal of this article is to find out positive and negative sides of the usage of drones in modern warfare.  The aim of this article is also to find what threats to do the states face because of the massive usage of drones by the terrorist organizations. 

Keywords: Unmanned aerial vehicles, drones, the usage of drones to fight terrorists, the usage of drones in armed conflicts, terrorist attacks, conflicts

DOI:
Publication date: 30.12.2021

References | PDF