Using UAVs in peace operations

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In the past 15 years, the field of unmanned aerial platforms has made a significant leap – from vehicles with limited abilities operated rarely to such that appear regularly on the news, to sophisticated platforms being used constantly by many armies for military needs. It is understandable, then, that when mentioning such vehicles, it is usualy in a context of military vessels that launch rockets or that directly assist manned vehicles that do to. However, UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) can be beneficial to man in keeping the peace as well, much like in the event that took place In Kongo, Africa in May 2014, when the U.N. peace corps stationed in the country detected via use of an UAV a water vessel that tipped over in the lake and started sinking. The troups called the rescue forces, thus saving 15 lives. But that wasn’t all the UAV was good for, as it stayed up in the air, aiding rescuers by giving a wider angle on the situation. This event is one is many and according to Richard Say, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), it points to the substantial need to make wider use of UAVs in a variety of U.N. missions to maintain peace around the world.

The U.N. forces located in centers around the world for missions to maintain peace are painfuly under-budgeted, under-staffed and under-equipped. As a way of dealing with these shortages in these three aspects while utilizing the peace operations to the maximum, Say claims that the U.N. must make frequent use of the unmanned flying platforms. The UAV field has come a long way from where it was 15 years ago and nowadays, a single unit is relatively cheap and easy to operate. Frequent use of these vehicles could improve greatly the abilities of U.N. soldiers to have a full grasp on a situation, thus allowing them to be better and more efficiently deployed in the field in order to act against the threats against which they stand. The use of UAVs will also greatly assist in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions (ISR), as the tools the peace corps currently have for these missions are usually helicopters and even those are rarely used since they are needed for transporting men and supplies from place to place. Furthermore, the use of UAVs will prevent unnecessary risks for pilots, will be substantially cheaper and will give soldiers air backup for more constant periods of times.

Alongside the great benefit to be had from growing use of aerial platforms in peace operations, using them can also cause difficulties. As mentioned earlier, frequent use of UAVs for attack and combat has given them an alarming and threatening presence, so they are perceived negatively by the population around which the peace corps are working, even if the reason for using then is completely positive. To overcome this obstacle and to decrease the level of fear in the population, Say suggests three ways to deal with this:

First of all, the U.N. will be forced to supply in advance information about the type of vehicle, the area of operation and the reason for using it. Second, the U.N. should be obligated to store all of the visual data gathered in order to supply to the local population, should it demand it, and last of all, the vehicles being used must be visibly market as belonging the peace corps and are under no cirumctances be allowed to carry any type of weapon.

Along with the perceptual difficulty arising of UAVs use, legal questions must also be answered: In many places in the world, such as in Kongo, the U.N. peace corps are using sub-contractors for operational support in UAV array. The issue to be dealt with in this matter is whether those sub-contractors can be considered legitimate targets by enemy forces? They are, after all, a major part in the U.N. fight force. To overcome this difficulty, Say claims that the U.N. peace corps must stop using local sub-contractors and get support and training outside the target country.