Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins by Andrew Cockburn. Andrew is a British journalist and the Washington DC editor of Harper’s Magazine and has written extensively about US military issues.
This book reveals the evolution of drone and air technology warfare. The US military strategy has certainly shifted to developing assassination machines since World War II. In addition, Andrew writes admirably about the US defense industry’s long desire to fight wars after Vietnam with advanced air technology.
The opening chapter documents human error by pilots of a MQ-1 Predator flown during Operation Noble Justice that mistakenly killed several Afghan civilians. Accordingly, Afghanistan President Hamid Kaarzai protested to President Bush.
Indeed, upon review by US military, payments to families of the dead included $5,000. Andrew is revealing this event was simply apart of a long history of hardware and human flaws regarding drone and airborne attacks. From the QH-50C drone to today’s modern Predator, drone technology continues failing to yield results from very lofty ambitions. The long and disappointing development of the Predator is very interesting. Andrew reveals much as political forces, not military or intelligence pushed this drone technology.
In addition, the 2010 leak of a drone footage in Baghdad that killed two Reuters journalists in 2007 were the result of remote pilots mistakenly viewing footage and acting upon false information. Audio statements included the idea that the Reuters journalists were carrying long rifles. Upon review, the two were in fact, carrying digital cameras.
Think drones are new?
The second chapter brings into focus the long history of military sensors and aerial technology beginning with Vietnam War. In a widely known effort, the US Military dropped various sensors surrounding the Ho Chi Minh Trail to detect troop movements for Operation Igloo White. Likewise, these sensor and early drone programs were created in 1958 under President Eisenhower within the US Defense and Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and launched as ARPA, sans Defense. Igloo White cost an estimated $800 million a year ($7 trillion 2022 dollars).
So, look no further than Sharon Weinberger’s DARPA and advanced technology project history and insights via her book The Imagineers of War. Likewise, it was very pleasing to see Andrew focus chapter two on the US war in Vietnam. Andrew missed the role of the QH-50C drone used right at the time of the Gulf of Tonkin incident:
What role did the QH-50C play that permitted LBJ to author the Gulf of Tonkin resolution and formalize war with North Vietnam in 1964?
The modern rise of drone technology
The miniaturization of electronic components over the last 20 years now permits drones to be more efficient. William Perry plays a significant role in supporting advanced technologies including drones that would later mature into the Predator. This accelerated under President Clinton. This development was all by Avraham Karem. The engineering was less than stellar:
Almost half the 268 Predators ultimately bought by the U.S. Air Force would be involved in major accidents. They were too delicate to fly in anything but perfectly calm weather. In the interests of making the drone’s noisy presence less obvious, the CIA demanded the addition of a muffler to its otherwise famously reliable Rotax piston engine. The consequent chronic overheating led to numerous engine failures and crashes, a problem that continues to this day. (“The problem is that nobody is comfortable with Predator. Nobody,” said the pilot of a Predator that crashed at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico in 2010, calling the notoriously unreliable drone “the most back-assedward aircraft I have ever flown.
pgs. 130-131.
A Predator by any other name
By 1994 the investment in Predator technology was certainly failing. This storyline proves valuable in understanding US efforts at that time. In fact, Andrew is revealing this focus of moving from carpet bombing to precision bombing of high value individuals and strategic resources.
In Chapter five, It’s Not Assassination if We Do It, reveals how the US DEA likewise applied high value individuals in the drug wars south of the US border. This is a strong discovery. Yet this also resulted in total failure. The US would soon be discovering high value individuals (older drug lords) who were being succeeded by very violent junior members. The drug flows never slowed.
Deep insights to a remote kill world
In conclusion, Kill Chain is a short, very intriguing book providing insights into the over promise and underwhelming failures of drone warfare.