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UK RAF admits using US drones in Afghanistan without notifying Parliament

10 February 2014, 19:43

The British Ministry of Defence admitted that the UK has used American drones more than 250 times to carry out military operations in Afghanistan, while the parliament was given no reports of the cases.

Western armies have often lacked transparency, making even their own government officials wonder at yet another leaked piece of information about unreported military actions. Recently the Ministry of Defense said it had launched 39 missile strikes from US drones due to the fact that the British unmanned aircraft was unavailable. This is the first time the British Ministry has reported using American craft, after pressure from British rights group, Drone Wars UK.

"As of 1 November 2012, 297 Hellfire precision guided missiles and 52 laser guided bombs have been deployed by the UK Reaper remotely piloted air system (RPAS) since operations commenced in Afghanistan." MoD reports on behalf of Defence Minister Andrew Robathan.

The founder of Drone Wars UK Chris Cole insists that at least 10% of drone strikes by Britain's Royal Air Force were not reported to parliament and expresses his deep concerns, stating that it could lead to "unaccountable military attacks", which will destabilize the situation in the region and the whole world. He also argues that due to the nature of the technology it is easy to trade or 'borrow' these drones for secret military purposes, and with all these manipulations it becomes difficult to trace the origin of a particular craft and to call the people responsible for certain actions to account.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVS) are aircraft remotely controlled either by a pilot on the ground, or with special software enabling them to fulfill mission objectives. They are used either for surveillance purposes or for carrying and launching bombs, explosives and other weapons.

Some activists, including those at Drone Wars UK, are concerned by the fact that being literally an unmanned device, a drone is incapable of remorse and can only follow the program, meaning any malfunction could cause a drone to attack innocent civilians.

Voice of Russia, RT, dronewars.net

Source: http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_02_10/UK-Air -Force-admits-using-drones-in-Afghanistan-in-250-operation-w ithout-notification-of-Parliament-4302/