Nick Turse, associate editor of TomDispatch.com, discusses his article “A Drone-Eat-Drone World;” the Pentagon’s eager anticipation of autonomous drones that decide when and where to rain death from above; why drones are rapidly proliferating even though they aren’t effective in fighting and winning wars; the 1-to-1 UAV flight time to maintenance ratio; and the ability of drones to evade rifle-wielding tribesmen – but not semi-modern air defenses (or Pakistani public opinion).
MP3 here. (19:20)
Nick Turse is the associate editor of TomDispatch.com. An award-winning journalist, his work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Nation, and regularly at TomDispatch. He is the author/editor of several books, including the just published Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050 (with Tom Engelhardt). You can follow him on Twitter @NickTurse, on Tumblr, and on Facebook.