{"id":54069,"date":"2015-02-23T12:00:21","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T12:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=54069"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:26:04","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:26:04","slug":"obama-administration-to-allow-sales-of-armed-drones-to-allies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/02\/obama-administration-to-allow-sales-of-armed-drones-to-allies\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama Administration to Allow Sales of Armed Drones to Allies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<\/a>

An MQ-9 Reaper flies by at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nev. (Ethan Miller\/GETTY IMAGES)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Obama administration will permit the widespread export of armed drones for the first time, a step toward providing allied nations with weapons that have become a cornerstone of U.S. counterterrorism strategy but whose remotely controlled power to kill is intensely controversial.<\/p>\n

The new policy, announced Tuesday<\/a> [17 Feb 2015] after a long internal review, is a significant step for U.S. arms policy as allied nations from Italy to Turkey to the Persian Gulf region clamor for the aircraft. It also is a nod to U.S. defense firms scrambling to secure a greater share of a growing global drone market.<\/p>\n

But in a reflection of the sensitivity surrounding sales of the lethal technology to allied countries, some of which have troubling records on human rights and political freedoms, the new policy lays out principles that foreign governments must embrace to receive the aircraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe technology is here to stay,\u201d said a senior State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the regulations. \u201cIt\u2019s to our benefit to have certain allies and partners equipped appropriately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"drones-explainer-promo\"How drones are controlled View Graphic <\/a><\/p>\n

The new policy is a delicate balancing act for the Obama White House, which has sought to elevate human rights in its foreign policy but also has employed drone strikes like no other government in history. The strikes, conducted by the Pentagon and the CIA, have become a central part of U.S. efforts against militants in places such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.<\/p>\n

Globally, a few countries \u2014 including the United States, Israel and China \u2014 already operate their own armed drones.<\/p>\n

To date, U.S. officials say, the United States has sold its armed drones only to Britain. Unarmed military drones, used primarily for intelligence, have been sold to a larger number of countries, including NATO allies such as France and Italy.<\/p>\n

Under the new rules, which remain classified, foreign governments\u2019 requests for drones will be examined on a case-by-case basis, officials said. In addition to regulations governing all military sales, the sale of armed drones would be subject to Cold War-era rules establishing a \u201cstrong presumption of denial,\u201d meaning that foreign governments would have to make a strong case for acquiring the aircraft.<\/p>\n

They also would have to agree to a set of \u201cproper use\u201d principles created by the United States, promising to use the drones for national defense or other situations in which force is permitted by international law. The drones are not to be used \u201cto conduct unlawful surveillance or [for] unlawful force against their domestic populations,\u201d an unclassified summary of the new policy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you fall back on what our objective is, it\u2019s really more than anything to provide an extra level of scrutiny with respect to these transfers,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n

Foreign governments also will have to accept potential U.S. monitoring of how the drones are used.<\/p>\n

The new policy covers both armed and unarmed drones and builds on the Obama administration\u2019s update last year to rules on conventional weapons transfers, which emphasize human rights protections in decisions about arms sales.<\/p>\n

The policy may nevertheless heighten concerns among rights groups, which maintain that the remote strikes have killed civilians without proper U.S. accountability.<\/p>\n

The policy also may face some opposition in Congress. Like all major weapons sales, drone exports above a certain dollar value would be subject to congressional notification, giving lawmakers an opportunity to hold up some if they have concerns.<\/p>\n

In 2012, a State Department plan to arm U.S.-made drones owned by Italy drew objections from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite the best intentions, we will not be able to guarantee that purchasers of U.S. UAVs [drones] will be able to develop the same level of intelligence to discriminate between potential targets, take the same level of care to limit the number of innocent civilians killed, or follow our restrictions against assassination,\u201d Feinstein wrote in a letter to then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.<\/p>\n

Micah Zenko, a scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the new guidelines fill a gap in U.S. policy, given the growing global reliance on drones for military, surveillance and law enforcement purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe important thing to know with armed drones is that based on America\u2019s record, they lower the threshold for when countries use armed force,\u201d Zenko said. \u201cAnd when you have that lower threshold, it can change the calculus of countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is likely to be additional congressional scrutiny in the wake of the Islamic State\u2019s seizure of much of Iraq this summer, and with it millions of dollars in U.S.-made military equipment that had been provided to Iraqi security forces.<\/p>\n

The United States has long taken a secretive approach to its use of drone strikes. In 2013, President Obama nudged the drone program partly out of the shadows<\/a> when he called the strikes an effective tool when foreign governments cannot or will not address militancy within their borders.<\/p>\n

A green light to sell drones overseas would help U.S. firms gain a larger foothold in the global drone market that Steve Zaloga, a senior analyst at the Teal Group Corp., an aerospace research firm, said is now worth more than $6\u00a0billion a year. The new policy also covers the export of commercial drones. China and Israel are actively promoting their drones to foreign buyers.<\/p>\n

Zaloga said drones commonly used by the U.S. military, such as the Reaper, can cost $10\u00a0million to $15\u00a0million.<\/p>\n

Officials said it would take months, but not years, to approve requests.<\/p>\n

Greater drone capability for U.S. allies also could ease the high demand for U.S. surveillance flights, particularly in the Middle East. The Air Force is grappling with a shortage of drone pilots and other military specialists needed to run drone operations.<\/p>\n

Related: Panel warns of \u2018unintended consequences\u2019 of U.S. drone policy<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n

____________________________<\/p>\n

Craig Whitlock contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Missy Ryan writes about the Pentagon, military issues, and national security for<\/em> The Washington Post.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 washingtonpost.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a disastrous decision for human rights and arms control,’ says William Hartung of Center for International Policy. The new policy, announced Tuesday [17 Feb 2015] after a long internal review, is a significant step for U.S. arms policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-militarism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54069\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}