It used to be an act of war to shoot down another country's aircraft - and now we've seen it happen twice on each side of Iranian / US tensions in recent weeks.
One of the early questions about UAVs was what impact they would have on the implications of force. I think we've got an answer: drones are fair game since they don't have anybody in them. Still higher stakes than doing nothing, but less so than shooting down a manned platform.
For instance, when I was on deployment near the Gulf on a carrier, we would regularly have an Iranian P-3 fly very close to us even after repeated warnings. Same thing with Russian Bears. We'd usually sent up an F/A-18 or two to "escort" the visitor and would never think of shooting them down unless fired upon. Yet, if a drone gets within 1000 yards, down it goes.
No judgment - interesting to see the rules of war evolve in real time with new tech!
One of the early questions about UAVs was what impact they would have on the implications of force. I think we've got an answer: drones are fair game since they don't have anybody in them. Still higher stakes than doing nothing, but less so than shooting down a manned platform.
For instance, when I was on deployment near the Gulf on a carrier, we would regularly have an Iranian P-3 fly very close to us even after repeated warnings. Same thing with Russian Bears. We'd usually sent up an F/A-18 or two to "escort" the visitor and would never think of shooting them down unless fired upon. Yet, if a drone gets within 1000 yards, down it goes.
No judgment - interesting to see the rules of war evolve in real time with new tech!