February 25, 2015
Release the drones
This week, the Obama administration announced a new policy loosening export restrictions for military and commercial drones. This policy shift represents a responsible first step toward ensuring U.S. defense industry competitiveness in the face of an ever-increasing number of global drone producers and exporters. It also gives the United States a better chance to establish and shape agreed-upon norms for the international use of drones.
To date, the administration has been extremely reluctant to transfer drones –particularly those that are armed – abroad, withholding them even from countries to which the United States sells advanced fighter jets. This is a mistake based on a misguided notion that drones are a special technology, and that if the United States does not transfer them to others, then they will not proliferate.
Read the full article at The Hill.
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