ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the responsibilities states have to their members of the military who operate remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) in combat. The ethics of RPA operation known colloquially as drones has been a hot area of debate in the past few years. The chapter also explores the duties that a state and its citizens owe to drone operators. It focuses on three duties: the duty to recognize drone operation as a form of combat with its own demands and associated risks; the duty to offer narrow support to drone operators; and the duty to create as transparent policies as reasonably practicable to help ensure that drone operators and operations are only used proportionately, when necessary, and in furtherance of a just cause. Drone operators face a second kind of risk that may help us understand how drone operation may be different from other forms of combat: the risk of moral injury.
