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Unmanned? Gender Recalibrations and the Rise of Drone Warfare

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2015

Lorraine Bayard de Volo
Lorraine Bayard de Volo*
Affiliation:
University of Colorado
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Extract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)—drones—are increasingly prominent in U.S. military strategy (Shaw and Akhter 2012). The U.S. Air Force (USAF) trains more UAV pilots than fighter and bomber pilots combined (Parsons 2012). A 2011 Defense Department analysis predicted “a force made up almost entirely of [UAVs] by the middle of this century” (U.S. Department of Defense 2011). Some argue that drones and other robotics so alter the character and conduct of military operations as to constitute a revolution in military affairs (RMA) (Singer 2009).

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , March 2016 , pp. 50 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2015 

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