Monday, July 30, 2012
Video games that kill
The NY Times takes a look at those who fly drones that watch and kill people halfway around the world. Now that we have more drones than pilots to fly their missions, it is good to see what kind of persons fly them. Up to now, most are trained pilots but that element has been downgraded in current training because it takes too long. Only officers are allowed to fire weapons at identified targets, but that may also change.
Pilots say the best days are when ground troops thank them for keeping them safe. Ted, an Air Force major and an F-16 pilot who flew Reapers from Creech, recalled how troops on an extended patrol away from their base in Afghanistan were grateful when he flew a Reaper above them for five hours so they could get some sleep one night. They told him, “We’re keeping one guy awake to talk to you, but if you can, just watch over and make sure nobody’s sneaking up on us,” he recalled.But it's all on a screen, so it's easy to accept whatever is done, just like in the movies.
All the operators dismiss the notion that they are playing a video game. (They also reject the word “drone” because they say it describes an aircraft that flies on its own. They call their planes remotely piloted aircraft.)
“I don’t have any video games that ask me to sit in one seat for six hours and look at the same target,” said Joshua, a sensor operator who worked at Creech for a decade and is now a trainer at Holloman. “One of the things we try to beat into our crews is that this is a real aircraft with a real human component, and whatever decisions you make, good or bad, there’s going to be actual consequences.”
In his 10 years at Creech, he said without elaborating, “I’ve seen some pretty disturbing things.”
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