ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the moral concerns that have been voiced about the use of Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Some of these concerns focus on the implications of UAVs for the moral status of combatants. Perhaps the best argument against the use of UAVs is what the chapter calls the Proliferation Problem. Paul Kahn argues that UAV operators engage in a kind of 'riskless warfare' that undercuts the very permissions of killing their enemies that combatants usually enjoy in war. Rather, Kahn argues that the permission to kill in war rests upon what he calls the 'reciprocal imposition of risk' that obtains between soldiers. The Recklessness Problem the concern that UAV operators kill too many innocent people compared to other combatants could give us grounds for prohibiting the use of UAVs. Even just combatants may not minimise costs to themselves by making other innocent people bear disproportionate costs.
