Ethics, Scientists, Engineers and the Military - Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability - page 332

and fi ghter planes, and for artifi cial intelligence to be used in decisions on when,
who and how to attack (Webb et al. 2010 ). Most automated systems identify people
by heat sensors, which cannot distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Therefore, the use of automated fi ghter drones is likely to both increase the number
of civilian casualties and remove a sense of responsibility for the resulting (civilian)
deaths from their controllers.
Moves to one person monitoring a large number of drones with little power to
intervene may be part of phasing out human controllers (Sharkey 2008 ). The use
of drones distances both governments and the military from the consequences of
the use of military force and feelings of responsibility. Increasing automation of
drones and reduction in human control of them will further increase this distanc-
ing and reduce feelings of responsibility, thereby lowering the barriers to the use
of military force. A distinction can be made between CIA use of drones outside
the battlefi eld and military use of drones within the battlefi eld, with the former
probably illegal and the later probably legal. There is some controversy about the
numbers of civilian and military casualties. However, the Bureau of Investigative
Journalism ( 2014 ) has estimated that there were 381 strikes between 2004 and
January 2014, leading to 2,537-3,646 deaths, including 416-915 civilian deaths
and 168-200 deaths of children. Therefore, between 11 and 36% of those killed
by drones were civilians.
Strike or attack aircraft are tactical military aircraft that mainly attack targets on
the ground or sea and with greater precision than bombers. They are also able to
counter stronger low-level air defences. While they are not generally used in
combat with other aircraft, they frequently have air-to-air missiles for self-defence.
They include ground attack aircraft, generally helicopters, and light attack aircraft
(Anon 2014f ).
Submarines can work at greater depths than human divers and have a very wide
range of types and capabilities from small autonomous and one- or two-person
vessels operating for a few hours to those that can remain submerged for 6 months.
Military submarines were fi rst used in World War I, and the fi rst nuclear cruise
missile was launched from a US submarine in 1953 (Anon 2014g ). Both the USA
and Soviet Union launched ballistic missile submarines in 1959-1960 during the
Cold War. Until the end of World War II, submarines were mainly used against surface
ships, as well as for mine-laying and inserting and removing covert military forces.
The development of submarine-launched ballistic and cruise missiles enabled sub-
marines to attack long-range land and sea targets with a variety of weapons from
cluster bombs to nuclear weapons. A submarine's main defence is its ability to
remain concealed. Early submarines could be detected by the noise they made,
whereas modern submarines are designed to be diffi cult to detect and have noise
levels that fade into the ambient ocean sound. Most submarines are military, but
civil submarines are used in tourism, exploration, oil and gas platform inspections
and pipeline surveys. All large submarines are nuclear-powered with backup diesel
generators, whereas smaller submarines have diesel-electric propulsion. Nuclear
submarine accidents have led to serious radiation incidents, some of which have
resulted in several deaths (Johnston 2007 ).