Drones are indiscriminate weapons of war that have been responsible for thousands of civilian deaths. Rather than expanding the UK’s arsenal, drones should be banned, just as landmines and cluster munitions were banned. Now is the time to stop the rise of drone warfare – before it is too late.7
This statement links ‘thousands of civilian deaths’ with the UK’s drones – the Reaper, in other words – despite evidence including the UN’s 2010 report on ‘extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions’ that does not even mention the UK or the RAF Reaper in its criticisms of drone use.
I have deliberately laboured these political and technical issues here because they provide the background to both my research and to the operations carried out by the RAF Reaper Force. They should also be borne in mind during the chapters to follow. From here on, however, my focus is on the pilots, SOs and MICs, past and present, who conduct the UK’s Reaper operations. They do not work in isolation, however, but are the most visible part of a vast and complex system. It takes an extensive array of people and skills, across several countries, to get a Reaper airborne and to enable it to function across continents: engineers of different types, communications specialists, computer programmers, operations support personnel, weapons technicians, armourers, intelligence gatherers, imagery analysts, air traffic controllers, aerospace battle managers, Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACs), lawyers, logisticians, flying programme administrators and many more besides.
Crucial though, and often overlooked in conventional books about war or air power, are the spouses, partners, families and friends that send the Reaper crews off to war every day. They live with the pressures, the fatigue and the emotional overflow from the daily operations conducted by the crew members. Many also spend a large proportion of their time as, effectively, single parents. It is not possible to write about the members of the Reaper Force in isolation without showing how their work impinges on family life, and vice versa.
And now, the structure of the book, which seeks to immerse the reader in the lives of the Reaper operators, from the claustrophobic, fast-moving, life-and-death decisions in the GCS to the human cost, the moral dilemmas, and the triumphs and failures that they experience. There is no strict chronological sequence, as RAF Reaper operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria are explored. Depending on who is speaking, and when, several names are used for the group who sought to establish a caliphate across Syria and Iraq: ‘ISIS’ (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), ‘ISIL’ (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), ‘Daesh’ and ‘IS’ (the self-proclaimed Islamic State). I use ‘IS’ for its brevity, while remembering its apocalyptic ambition and vision and, as a United Nations Human Rights report stated, for ‘imposing their radical ideologies on the civilian population’.8 This radical ideology is enforced by extreme violence, enslavement, rape, murder, torture and more.
In the first three chapters, I take the reader into ‘Reaper world’ through my own experiences as I set out on my research. Chapter 1 follows the journey from Las Vegas to Creech Air Force Base and into 39 Squadron, concluding with the pre-flight briefing for the day’s mission. Chapters 2 and 3 are spent in the GCS with two different crews on successive days. The first day captures hour after hour of surveillance activities, while the second day sees two missile strikes against IS jihadists. Chapter 4 is the most historically focused of the book, providing an insight into the origins of the UK Reaper Force through the eyes and experiences of several pioneers who developed their understanding while serving on exchange with the USAF Predator fleet.
Chapters 5-9 are all highly detailed and operationally focused, highlighting specific individuals or experiences. Chapter 5 recounts the 2011 civilian casualty incident through the eyes of the MIC involved, going on to reflect on living with what happened that day. Chapter 6 challenges many assumptions about gender and war as ‘Tara’ flies Reaper operations, including her employment of lethal weapons, through to advanced pregnancy. Chapter 7 provides a major ‘What if?’ moment for a crew whose target fixation could potentially have had a disastrous outcome, then follows the retraining process that brings them back to full capability again. Chapter 8 re-lives the moral dilemmas of one Reaper SO who struggled with killing, and controlling missiles onto human targets. Then Chapter 9, Happy Boxing Day, proves to be anything but as a crew spends Christmas night 2014 helplessly observing a series of horrors on the ground in Iraq, whilst being unable to intervene to protect the ‘friendlies’ below.
The final four chapters are more reflective. Chapter 10 brings together the thoughts and experiences of a range of Reaper crew members in their own words. Chapter 11 provides a moment-by-moment account of one of the most famous RAF Reaper missile shots from those involved. The shot disrupted a public execution and the video was released by the MoD at the same time as it was announced that there would be no medallic recognition for the Reaper Force personnel for their fight against IS. The penultimate chapter gives voice to several spouses and partners who speak about their lives with those who go to war every day, and the challenges they face. The final chapter combines my own thoughts on what I have seen and experienced, with reflections from Reaper operators on the personal legacies of having been at war, continuously, for up to seven years and more. One additional, unplanned chapter appears as an Epilogue and captures a glimpse of the human cost of war. It started as a brief, personal account from a Reaper MIC who witnessed the death of a US Marine, Corporal Matthew Richard, in Afghanistan, and still remembers it every day. The story evolved over several months as I got to know Cpl Richard’s parents, his Squad Leader and five fellow squad members, who all shared their perspectives on what happened on 9 June 2011.
3 RPAS is the legally designated descriptor used by the International Civil Aviation Organisation. See http://www.icao.int/Meetings/anconf12/IPs/ANConf.12.IP.30.4.2.en.pdf, accessed 23 July 2018.
4 Cole, C., Dobbing, M. and Hailwood, A., Convenient Killing: Armed Drones and the ‘Playstation’ Mentality (Oxford: Fellowship of Reconciliation, 2010).
5 Philip Alston, 28 May 2010, Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Study on Targeted Killings, Human Rights Council, UN Doc. A/HRC/14/24/Add.6, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/14session/A.HRC.14.24.Add6.pdf, accessed 5 February 2018.
6 Vic Pittman, Salem News, 18 April 2013, ‘Cowardice Redefined, The New Face of American Serial Killers’, http://www.salem-news.com/articles/april182013/american-killers-vp.php, accessed 10 February 2018.
7 War on Want, ‘Killer Drones’, https://waronwant.org/killerdrones, accessed 10 February 2018.
8 Pinheiro, P.S., 18 March 2014. Statement by the Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. United Nations Human Rights, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14397&Lang ID=E, accessed 12 February 2018.
