[ExI] collateral damage

[BillK]

On 12 July 2017 at 19:32, William Flynn Wallace  wrote:
> Innocent people are killed by our drones.  (I don't know what one looks like
> or how it acts.)  Why not put a camera on one of those helicopter-like
> drones, with facial recognition software, and only take out the person
> recognized as the target?
>
> Only tech can stop the killing of innocents, unless we just stop the wars
> and go home (my choice).
>

The drones used are not the little multi-rotor devices that can carry
a camera and not much else.
The military version is fixed wing aircraft that carry Hellfire
missiles or Paveway guided bombs.
As you might guess these are pretty destructive devices.
One estimate is that the Hellfire missile has a ‘kill radius’ of 50
feet (15 metres) and a ‘wounding radius’ of 65 feet (20 metres); the
GBU-12 Paveway II has a ‘casualty radius’ of between 200 and 300 feet
(within which 50 per cent of people will be killed).

It may be possible in the future to miniaturise everything and get a
device that can seek out a specific person and kill them, but at
present that's science fiction.

BillK