Drone Wars: Pioneers, Killing Machines, Artificial Intelligence, and the Battle for the Future

by Seth J. Frantzman

Drones are transforming warfare through the use of artificial intelligence, drone swarms, and surveillance—leading to competition between the US, China, Israel, and Iran. Who will be the next drone superpower?

In the battle for the streets of Mosul in Iraq, drones in the hands of ISIS terrorists made life hell for the Iraq army and civilians. Today, defense companies are racing to develop the lasers, microwave weapons, and technology necessary for confronting the next drone threat. Seth J. Frantzman takes the reader from the midnight exercises with Israel’s elite drone warriors, to the CIA headquarters where new drone technology was once adopted in the 1990s to hunt Osama bin Laden.

This rapidly expanding technology could be used to target nuclear power plants and pose a threat to civilian airports. In the Middle East, the US used a drone to kill Iranian arch-terrorist Qasem Soleimani, a key Iranian commander. Drones are transforming the battlefield from Syria to Libya and Yemen. For militaries and security agencies—the main users of expensive drones—the UAV market is expanding as well; there were more than 20,000 military drones in use by 2020. Once the province of only a few militaries, drones now being built in Turkey, China, Russia, and smaller countries like Taiwan may be joining the military drone market. It’s big business, too—$100 billion will be spent over the next decade on drones. Militaries may soon be spending more on drones than tanks, much as navies transitioned away from giant vulnerable battleships to more agile ships. The future wars will be fought with drones and won by whoever has the most sophisticated technology.

Genres: Technology, War, History, Israel, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Politics

288 pages, Hardcover

Published June 22, 2021

Reviews

[Odai Al-Saeed · Rating 4 out of 5]

يحتوي علي معلومات صادمة ويعزز فكرة تأخر العرب عن الركب في تكنولوجيا الحروب كما أنه يؤيد بالأدلة سباقية الصهاينة لفكر الحروب المدمر

[Julius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Esta obra recoge de una manera más o menos cronológica, la evolución y la presencia de los drones en algunos conflictos bélicos. El libro empieza sobre todo destacando la industria militar israelí, para centrarse mucho en el empleo de los drones como arma antiterrorista en Afganistán y otros países del entorno.

También se dedica un último capítulo a hablar de los drones y de la inteligencia artificial, aunque de una manera muy pobre.

Más que nada, es una colección de noticias, que al que no conozca el tema, le puede dar una ligera idea de hacia dónde se dirige el arte de hacer la guerra hoy en día. Sin embargo, al contrario que en otros libros, como The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare, muchísimo más elaborado que la presente obra, no se mencionan nada las luchas de poder por incorporar los drones al ejército, o los problemas éticos, o el origen de los mismos. Para quien quiera conocer mejor este mundillo, recomiendo el citado libro de Chris Brose.

[Or-el · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dated by no fault of its own given its publication date on a fast-moving field, the book was a great overview of the development of drone technology, and a fascinating look at how some policies have both hampered the U.S. dominance in the field and also delayed the introduction of drones into modern combined arms theory. I would have loved a bit more color in some areas, like civilian drone development and the overlap, and more focus on the technical aspects of drone warfare in the future, but that was not as large a part of the book’s focus, fairly enough. Two issues: first, the book can at times be somewhat repetitive, because it jumps around in time and sometimes retreads the same ground. Second, the book has some gaps in the history. Part of this is explained by way of the slow development of drones and then their explosion onto the scene once more, but part of it creates a jarring feeling of a time skip, that could have been filled by addressing how and why drone technology failed the way it did to penetrate the military world. Some of this is due to the book’s constant return to the theme of militaries fighting the last war, but some no doubt misses the political overlay that came about during the waning years of and first years after the Cold War, that would have been interesting to examine.

[Jeno · Rating 1 out of 5]

lots of nomenclature titles, dates, names... what for?
no coherent timeline, bits and pieces jumping between decades, governments, companies and regions to say what..? it wasted lots of pages on Iran trying to get a hold on downed down aircraft - manned and unmanned.
no accounts of tu-141, for example.

worthless brochure with no coherent narrative that reads almost like wikipedia.
why all those facts? what for?

wasted time, I couldn't finish it.
if you follow our war against russians and our pals' war against hamas - you know the drill, you know how drones are being used or not used.
given the publication date, it clearly doesn't know much about the FPV usage these days.

p.s.
I think this book tried to address the stupid liberals with a slogan "those drones are on a killing frenzy and there are many human casualties" but these days when the globalization literally died thanks to the barbarians of this world, this message is childish or shizoid at best.

Worthless waste of paper it was published on.

[solo · Rating 3 out of 5]

meh. [not the first] attempt to make the subject accessible to a wider audience, at the expense of depth and content quality - i learned nothing new. at times reads a bit like an Israeli military-industrial complex brochure (q.v. author's background).

despite being published in 2021, it had almost nothing to say on the 2nd Nagorno-Karabakh War (see Antal's brief but to the point 7 Seconds to Die for some of that). and, of course, it predates the 2022+ conflicts - which, together with NKW2, could really be called "Drone Wars", even if not in the same sense...

also, some puzzling gaffes make one wonder whether the author (and the reviewers!) actually know the subject matter all that well at all. US Marines' "155 mm. mortars"? "one of the burned engines" of an F-16I "sticking from a field"?!?

[Mohammed Alkhazraji · Rating 3 out of 5]

٣ نجوم للمؤلف ونجمة واحدة ولو لم يستحقها للمترجم !
ترجمة بائسة جداً واتوقع انها ترجمة google ووضع اسمه عليها فقط
استغرب من الكاتب الذي وافق على نشر كتابه بهذه الترجمة البائسة رغم انه بذل جهد واضح في كتابته من خلال مقابلاته الشخصية مع المعنيين من مشغلين ومهندسين وشركات ضليعة بالطائرات المسيرة
اعطيت ٣ نجوم للكاتب لكونه لم يراعي التسلسل الزمني في سرد الاحداث فمرة يتحدث في ثمانينات القرن الماضي ويقفز قفزة للعقد الثاني من القرن الحاضر
واستطرد كثيراً بمشاريع لطائرات لم ترى النور ولم تكون اساس لطائرات اخرى مهمة واجد ان ذكرها يشوش القارئ
وكذلك لم يذكر التواريخ الدقيقة لبدء تسليح الطائرات المسيرة او تكنلوجيا البث الفديوي او ربطها بالاقمار الصناعية
لكنه يحوي على كم هائل من المعلومات واستشراف للمستقبل بصورة مهنية

[Dan Watts · Rating 3 out of 5]

I chose this book because I wanted to learn about how drones are being used for military purposes, without focusing on concerns about morality, privacy and "killer robots".

The book does mostly avoid commentary, but I found it quite dull. It's a review of which countries did what with which types of drones, with few anecdotes or first-person accounts. I suppose it would be a good refresher for those who have been following the topic through the years, but for me there was little that I'm likely to remember a year from now.

[Özgür · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good account of drone involvement in recent conflicts and a peek into how future wars might be fought...
The book is mostly a repeating collage of news.
The confusion of US military top brass for drones role in warfare is made worse with the stories not following a chronological order, which makes the book difficult to read at times.
Overall an enjoyable read...

[Paul Forrest · Rating 1 out of 5]

A dry read which missed an opportunity to explore the most interesting aspect of drone tech, which is the future possibilities in war arenas. Even the final chapter which considered AI drones, there was little attempt to think through the philosophical—not least, the ethical—issues which could arise.

[John L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Worthy Read Into the Drone Warfare Revolution

- Excellent, we’ll documented history of drone warfare technology
- Good analysis of the politics, military thinking, and ethical considerations of drone warfare that have evolved and will be problematic for the next generation

[Tam Le Blanc]

A solid overview of drone development and aside from the occasional mixed metaphor it is well written. The author doesn't quite understand the concept of RMA or the arguments against its existence, but that's forgivable in a readable book laying out the modern development of UAVs.

[Aqeel Haider · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read about the development of drone technology... informative

[Nwaf · Rating 3 out of 5]

للمهتمين بالتكنولوجيا والذكاء الاصطناعي وحروب الطائرات بدون طيار وحول كيفية تطور حروب المستقبل في القرن الواحد والعشرين والتهديدات العسكرية والأمنية التي تواجهها الدول

[William L Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drone Wars is insightful

This book lays a strong historical foundation for the first half and is followed by an insightful and analytical view on the back half. A must read to understand where’ve been and where we are headed with unmanned autonomous drones.