Almost two decades after their first deployment outside situations of armed conflict, the use of drones has now become routine for many nations and non-state actors alike. In a side-event to the 48th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, organized on 24 September 2021 by Reprieve and PAX, state representatives, families of victims, human rights lawyers and UN experts...

12 October, 2021 /

The European Forum on Armed Drones newsletter covers the latest news, stories and events on drones and gives an update on the activities of our members. Read the latest newsletter here. This newsletter covers drone proliferation in Africa, the challenges and consequences of the US drone program, military drones in Europe, drone roundups, UK's drone operations in the Middle East, Trump’s...

11 May, 2021 /

Read our newsletter to receive an update on the activities of our members and the latest news, stories and events on drones! Click here to read the newsletter. Click here to sign up for the newsletter....

31 March, 2021 /

As the cases of Yemen, Libya, Northern Syria and the recent events in Nagorno-Karabakh demonstrate, the rapidly growing proliferation and use of drones have serious implications for conflicts all over the world. UN experts also remain concerned about their compliance with international humanitarian law and human rights law standards. In a webinar, hosted on December 2nd 2020 by Vrede, Pax...

08 December, 2020 /

This roundup, curated by ReThink Media, looks at how the media is talking about drone warfare (and related topics) and what stories are being told. With little transparency from governments on this topic, this roundup aims to be as comprehensive as possible, identifying breaking news, trends, developing stories, or interesting narratives. Rethink Media also use media coverage to compile a snapshot of...

30 July, 2020 /

In November 2019, the Dutch parliament demanded the Ministry of Defence to investigate whether four MQ-9 Reapers, which the Netherlands will receive in early 2021, should be armed. In January 2020, State Secretary for Defence Barbara Visser wrote in a letter to parliament that the armament of the Reapers is “currently not on the agenda.” However, the Ministry of Defence does...

27 May, 2020 /

This month, the European Commission announced the new selected European defence research projects and opened calls for new defence research proposals. The development of uncrewed systems plays a significant role in both the selected projects and call for proposals, which will all be funded by the European Defence Fund (EDF). A new selected research project, which should be finished within 2...

24 April, 2020 /

Yesterday, a Polish Warmate suicide drone showed up in Libya, despite the UN-backed arms embargo against Libya which has been in place since 2011. Although the images have not been verified, sources indicate that the photos are indeed taken in Libya. The Warmate suicide drone is a type of light loitering munition which provides “precisely targeted strike and observation capabilities...

16 April, 2020 /