WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The report of new weaponized drones capable of carrying lethal 150-kilowatt lasers reveal the hypocrisy of Congress’s applause for Pope Francis’ call in his speech to abandon the arms trade, US experts told Sputnik.
"On Thursday, the Pope urged the US Congress to end the arms trade and the wars. Congress gave him a standing ovation," David Swanson, co-founder of the WarIsACrime.org activist group said. "But of course, Congress didn't mean it and the US media won't pursue it."
On the contrary, Swanson noted, major US defense contractors were clearly focusing on continuing to develop ever-more-deadly unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at breakneck speed.
"We will continue seeing reports like this one trumpeting the technological wonder of the next new weapon," Swanson said. "The driving force, as the Pope said to Congress, is nothing but money drenched in the blood of innocents."
"Weaponized drones should be banned," Swanson demanded. "They allow governments with no democratic oversight to murder people anywhere at any time. I don't say ‘murder anyone they want, because they mostly murder innocent people who were not specifically targeted, and often murder unidentified people who appeared suspicious to someone."
The death toll of innocent civilians killed in ever-escalating drone strikes would continue, Swanson predicted, at least until US leaders grew alarmed at the way other nations started to use drones the same way they already did.
"New types of killer drones will be part of that [cycle] at least until India or Iran or Russia or some other country does something with a killer drone that the United States disapproves of — or too many nations buy their killer drones from a supplier the US disapproves of," Swanson concluded.
Judith Bello of Drones Watch told Sputnik that the new development of laser drones was "not surprising, but it certainly is disturbing."
The new technology, Bello warned, would further blur the line between lethal and non-lethal capabilities for drones.
"A drone heavy enough to carry a laser is also heavy enough to carry a big load of ordinary munitions," she said. "Also, it might be armed with a lethal or nonlethal laser or one with both capabilities, making it very complicated to set boundaries for domestic use of drones."
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) the San Diego-based company that makes the US Predator and Reaper drones, is undertaking a privately funded study to integrate a 150-kilowatt solid-state laser onto its Avenger drone.
If the company succeeds, a drone with a high-energy laser will be a reality at some point in 2017, company executives said.
