Homemade drone prototype tested with a fake grenade on the outskirts of Kiev
Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
Never before have there been so many devices in the skies of a country at war. Whether surveillance, attack or advertising: drones are a game changer
Throughout history, there is no shortage of examples of unmanned aerial vehicles being used against an enemy they intended to destroy. In the 17th century in Thailand, King Phetracha’s army forced a rebellious principality to surrender by flying barrels of gunpowder tied to parrots over the mutinous fortress. Two centuries later, in 1849, in the first attempt at an air raid, the Austrians sent 200 timed hot air balloons to release bombs toward the Republic of Venice.
After 9/11, modern giant birdstyle drones proliferated as surveillance devices during the years of the war on terrorism. Gradually they showed their claws and were used by the United States as part of its policy of selective assassinations, especially in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen, with which Washington was not at war.
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