In a significant policy shift that’s guaranteed to pay dividends to US defense contractors, the State Department released new guidelines that will formally allow the sale and transfer of armed drones from American companies to international partners.
Under the new policy announced Tuesday, future sales of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) will be made through a “government-to-government Foreign Military Sales Program,” and will be reviewed by the Department of Defense. The guidelines also claim that each recipient nation of US drone technology will be “required to agree to end-use assurances.”
“Recipients are to use these systems in accordance with international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, as applicable,” the State Department said.
In addition, UAS systems supplied by the US, which can cost more than $10 million a piece, are to be used only in lawful military operations, and not “to conduct unlawful surveillance or use unlawful force against…domestic populations.”
The specific rules governing the sale and transfer of military drones to foreign countries remains classified.
Speaking to the Washington Post, a senior State Department official said the new policy is in response to a technology that is “here to stay.”
“It’s to our benefit to have certain allies and partners equipped appropriately,” they added.
Currently, only a handful of nation employ drones, including the United States, China, Israel, Turkey, Russia, and a number of countries in Europe. Reportedly, the only nation that’s been permitted to purchase American-made systems, thus far, has been the UK.
International observers already critical with how the United States has conducted its drone strikes for the better part of the last decade are likely to greet the new policy with skepticism, even with assurances that the technology will be used in accordance with international law and human rights concerns.
Middle Eastern allies in the so-called war on terror that have long sought UAS technology from American defense contractors are also notorious for committing human rights abuses against their own citizens.
Read the State Department’s new guidelines here.
