The first use raises few questions from the point of view of international law, beyond those raised by any other weapon, whether or not it is aerial or manned: vigilance is needed to ensure that the use of the weapon is in accordance with international humanitarian law. With this diversity in mind, drones can be used, strategically and militarily, in three different ways: first of all, when ground troops attack or are attacked, drones are called in to use bombs and missiles like any other military plane secondly, there are drones that patrol the skies over certain countries observing living patterns 24 hours a day and thirdly, drones are used on missions planned to kill terrorist suspects, in what have become known as “targeted killings” in the context of the “war on terror.” Around fifty countries have or are developing drones, though only the United States (and perhaps the United Kingdom and Israel) use them as armed vehicles. There is a wide variety of models and types of drones with respect to size, weight, cost, range and capabilities: from the tiny vehicles of under two kilos, similar to model airplanes, to out-and-out fighter planes weighing several tons, capable of being equipped with heavy weaponry and with a flight range of thousands of kilometers. They are called drones because of the constant buzzing noise that some of these vehicles make in flight. Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles, controlled remotely and in real time by human operators.
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