4 ms·

The loneliness of the long-distance drone pilot

31 points by Thevet 12y ago

gaius 12y ago
Must be terrible Oh wait http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/24/-sp-us-drone-strikes-kill-1147 http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/24/-sp-us-drone-...
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
jacquesm 12y ago
Drone pilots looking for sympathy because they're lonely? "The door opened and in walked a Pakistani father with the corpse of his child." The epitome of first world problems.
- ycitm 12y ago
  As @Joeboy points out, the title is a play on "The loneliness of the long distance runner", so it's not literally about loneliness.
  - Joeboy 12y ago
    The word lonely (or derivatives thereof) doesn't actually appear in the text. I only know that because I searched for it though.
    - ycitm 12y ago
      The phrase "it makes for really boring dinner conversation" does though.
      - jacquesm 12y ago
        As well as a whole pile of others about being 'overpaid, underworked and bored' and more gems like that. Another viewpoint: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/29/drones-us-military http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/29/drones-...
Joeboy 12y ago
Not reading the article because I fear it might piss me off more than I need right now, but I wondered if everybody knew the title was a riff on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Loneliness_of_the_Long_Distance_Runner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Loneliness_of_the_Long_Dis...
ris 12y ago
My. Heart. Fucking. Bleeds.
Animats 12y ago
The USAF hates drones. Their pilots hate drones. The US Army likes them, and has much less trouble with staffing. The Army's Predator drones have autoland, and their drones crash less than the USAF's piloted landings. Army drones are piloted by enlisted men who take a 21-week course. Army recruiting video for drone operators: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe48B7YRLfg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe48B7YRLfg The Army wants to minimize the number of people needed to operate drones, because their operators are in trailers at the drone launch sites. The soldiers who fly the drones are also trained to launch them (some launch from a truck-mounted rail, without a runway) and do some of the maintenance on them, so they're full-stack drone soldiers. The USAF has a setup where drones are flown off a runway near the battlefield, but piloted and observed remotely from the US.
- bsder 12y ago
  Yeah, the Air Force has been fighting tooth and nail because it's becoming increasingly obvious that manned aircraft are going to significantly drop in number. Why call in a strike with it's attendant delay when you can just do it now? Perhaps if the Air Force were a little more cooperative with the Army, the Army wouldn't have been quite so aggressive about its drone program.
danbruc 12y ago
I hope they suffer a lot from what they are doing. They are responsible for what they are doing. They are always free to quit and work for someone with higher goals than blowing up people on the other end of the world. Just imagine what would happen if Pakistan would start blowing up drone pilots on their way home because they are terrorizing their people.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
  - danbruc 12y ago
    If you are defending your country against an aggressor, I have no problem with you shooting back at them. If you proactively kill possible terrorist, if you make up a bunch of lies to invade a country, if you mess with an entire regions to make sure you maintain access to cheap oil, you shall suffer hard for that crimes against humanity.
- kephra 12y ago
  I really wonder why nobody did use an off the shelf high payload drone, e.g. an octocopter, to attack a drone pilot on its way home, at home, at the football match, or when he picks up his children from school. Those drone pilots are combatants and therefore legal targets of war, regardless how deep they hide in the hinterland. I don't think that Pakistan will declare war to US. The relation is totally odd, with US financing Pakistan military on one side, while bombing those parts where Pakistan lost control on the other hand side. Pakistan and US are close allies, who both know that staying allies is the best they can do. But some self declared Islamic state might do. Its just retaliation from their viewpoint. And that kind of attack is plain cheap to execute, would perfectly fit into the picture of an asymmetrical war, and even be legal as drone pilots are combatants. So I really wonder, why nobody did so far.
  - danbruc 12y ago
    Yes, Pakistan was not a good example. But an octocopter would be unnecessary complex way because you will probably not be able to control it from the other end of the world. But what if you would just waited in front of the base and shoot a drone pilot down? Would it be fair game? Would it be murder?

31 points by Thevet 12y ago

gaius 12y ago

Must be terrible Oh wait http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/24/-sp-us-drone-strikes-kill-1147 http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/24/-sp-us-drone-...

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

jacquesm 12y ago

Drone pilots looking for sympathy because they're lonely? "The door opened and in walked a Pakistani father with the corpse of his child." The epitome of first world problems.

ycitm 12y ago
As @Joeboy points out, the title is a play on "The loneliness of the long distance runner", so it's not literally about loneliness.
- Joeboy 12y ago
  The word lonely (or derivatives thereof) doesn't actually appear in the text. I only know that because I searched for it though.
  - ycitm 12y ago
    The phrase "it makes for really boring dinner conversation" does though.
    - jacquesm 12y ago
      As well as a whole pile of others about being 'overpaid, underworked and bored' and more gems like that. Another viewpoint: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/29/drones-us-military http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/29/drones-...

Joeboy 12y ago

Not reading the article because I fear it might piss me off more than I need right now, but I wondered if everybody knew the title was a riff on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Loneliness_of_the_Long_Distance_Runner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Loneliness_of_the_Long_Dis...

ris 12y ago

My. Heart. Fucking. Bleeds.

Animats 12y ago

The USAF hates drones. Their pilots hate drones. The US Army likes them, and has much less trouble with staffing. The Army's Predator drones have autoland, and their drones crash less than the USAF's piloted landings. Army drones are piloted by enlisted men who take a 21-week course. Army recruiting video for drone operators: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe48B7YRLfg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe48B7YRLfg The Army wants to minimize the number of people needed to operate drones, because their operators are in trailers at the drone launch sites. The soldiers who fly the drones are also trained to launch them (some launch from a truck-mounted rail, without a runway) and do some of the maintenance on them, so they're full-stack drone soldiers. The USAF has a setup where drones are flown off a runway near the battlefield, but piloted and observed remotely from the US.

bsder 12y ago
Yeah, the Air Force has been fighting tooth and nail because it's becoming increasingly obvious that manned aircraft are going to significantly drop in number. Why call in a strike with it's attendant delay when you can just do it now? Perhaps if the Air Force were a little more cooperative with the Army, the Army wouldn't have been quite so aggressive about its drone program.

danbruc 12y ago

I hope they suffer a lot from what they are doing. They are responsible for what they are doing. They are always free to quit and work for someone with higher goals than blowing up people on the other end of the world. Just imagine what would happen if Pakistan would start blowing up drone pilots on their way home because they are terrorizing their people.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- danbruc 12y ago
  If you are defending your country against an aggressor, I have no problem with you shooting back at them. If you proactively kill possible terrorist, if you make up a bunch of lies to invade a country, if you mess with an entire regions to make sure you maintain access to cheap oil, you shall suffer hard for that crimes against humanity.
kephra 12y ago
I really wonder why nobody did use an off the shelf high payload drone, e.g. an octocopter, to attack a drone pilot on its way home, at home, at the football match, or when he picks up his children from school. Those drone pilots are combatants and therefore legal targets of war, regardless how deep they hide in the hinterland. I don't think that Pakistan will declare war to US. The relation is totally odd, with US financing Pakistan military on one side, while bombing those parts where Pakistan lost control on the other hand side. Pakistan and US are close allies, who both know that staying allies is the best they can do. But some self declared Islamic state might do. Its just retaliation from their viewpoint. And that kind of attack is plain cheap to execute, would perfectly fit into the picture of an asymmetrical war, and even be legal as drone pilots are combatants. So I really wonder, why nobody did so far.
- danbruc 12y ago
  Yes, Pakistan was not a good example. But an octocopter would be unnecessary complex way because you will probably not be able to control it from the other end of the world. But what if you would just waited in front of the base and shoot a drone pilot down? Would it be fair game? Would it be murder?