Drone technology has made huge strides

THE first drones were military. The use of pilotless flying machines as weapons dates back to the siege of Venice in 1849, when Austrian forces launched balloons laden with explosives against the city. But the origin of military drones is usually dated to the development of uncrewed, remote-controlled aircraft for use as targets by anti-aircraft gunners after the first world war. The first truly successful example was the de Havilland DH82B Queen Bee, which entered service in Britain in 1935 and seems to have been the inspiration for calling such aircraft “drones” (after stingless male bees); Germany’s V-1 flying bomb was another early drone.

In recent years drones have become a vital component of air power. America’s armed forces have a fleet of more than 11,000 drones, compared with just a handful in 2001. Peter Singer of the New America Foundation, a think-tank, says around 80 countries now have military drones, including about 20 with armed ones, either already in use or in development. But the vast majority are unarmed surveillance aircraft of various shapes and sizes.