Abstract:

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been replacing more expensive and manned aircrafts in particularly asymmetric operations to minimize costs and death risk of pilots. This article elucidates the evolution of UAVs in detail and proposes two hypotheses: (1) armed drones have similar functions as proxy groups in proxy wars, and (2) they are evolutionary but not revolutionary. As proxy groups act on behalf of principal states, proxy weapons surrogate jets. However, despite many benefits it contributes to air forces, armed drones are hardly believed to be game-changers. Instead, they are seen as evolutionary and complementary to manned aircrafts. In addition, UAVs are beneficial mainly in asymmetric warfare since they can not be used in the air space of a country with advanced air defense systems. There may be more drones employed by armies in the future but they may not prevail over piloted aircrafts as human factor is still decisive in combats. This study is expected contribute to literature with its arguments about UAVs. Methodologically, literature review was made for the study.

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