IDSA Occasional Paper No. 57 AERIAL DRONES IN FUTURE WARS A CONCEPTUAL PERSPECTIVE Atul Pant Aerial Drones in Future Wars: A Conceptual Perspective | 1 IDSA Occasional Paper No. 57 Aerial Drones in Future Wars: A Conceptual Perspective Atul Pant 2 | Atul Pant Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, sorted in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-copying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). ISBN: 978-93-82169-92-5 First Published: May 2020 Price: Rs. 135/- Published by: Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses No.1, Development Enclave, Rao Tula Ram Marg, Delhi Cantt., New Delhi - 110 010 Tel. (91-11) 2671-7983 Fax.(91-11) 2615 4191 E-mail:
[email protected] Website: http://www.idsa.in Cover & Layout by: Geeta Kumari Printed at: KW Publishers Pvt Ltd 4676/21, First Floor, Ansari Road Daryaganj, New Delhi 110002, India Mobile: +91-9873113145 Phone: +91 11 2326 3498 / 4352 8107 www.kwpub.com Aerial Drones in Future Wars: A Conceptual Perspective | 3 AERIAL DRONES IN FUTURE WARS: A CONCEPTUAL PERSPECTIVE Unmanned platforms in all three mediums—air, land, and sea—have always been the preferred choice for fighting wars. Their induction, proliferation, and usage was only limited by the technologies available in the domain of aviation. The advantages of aerial drones in wars were realised at the dawn of aviation itself, with the Curtiss biplanes being used as the first unmanned aircraft—as “Air Torpedoes”—during World War 1(WWI).