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Opinion | From China to Middle East, drones are increasingly used to attack, spy and kill
- Before drones, a pandemic the scale of the Covid-19 crisis would have halted most combat operations
- But unmanned aerial vehicles can now allow states to deploy attacks or carry out surveillance from the other side of the world
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The use of drones, whether on Italian shores hunting for sunbathers escaping the lockdown or delivery of medicine in remote African areas, is growing more widespread, and is at the forefront of our search for an efficient and technologically-driven new normal.
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This is particularly true as the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic: precision contact-tracing, contactless delivery, and support in enforcing lockdowns are just some of the roles that Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are called on to perform.
Despite the failed promise of remotely-operated ground vehicles delivering our daily groceries, their aerial counterparts are gaining popularity and government support by the day.
China is leading this charge: Shenzhen and Hangzhou, the cities that are, respectively, home to the world-leading manufacturers of civilian drones (DJI) and security cameras (Hikvision), are ramping up efforts to produce and export crowd-tracking solutions.
But while civilian drones’ applications in the struggle against the pandemic are in their beta version, their military counterparts are well ahead of the curve, and have ushered in a new era of remote-controlled conflicts.
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