The UN Launches Its Own Spy Drone Program

The United Nations has turned to spy drones for the first time in its history in an effort to increase pressure in militias in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, marking both a major technological advancement in the organization’s peacekeeping arsenal as well as a shift in how it views the use of unmanned aerial vehicles. Such high-technology systems allow a better knowledge of what is happening on the ground, which allows a force to better do its job,” Hervé Ladsous, Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, told journalists upon his arrival in Goma this week. The first two drones were launched on Tuesday from the eastern city of Goma and officials expect another drone to be deployed by the end of the month with more to be delivered in the spring. “With this kind of equipment, we should be able to combine information gathered in flight with information gathered on the ground by people,” said Santos Cruz, Force Commander General Santos of MONUSCO, the UN’s stabilization mission in Congo. For now, the deployment, which was authorized by the Security Council earlier this year, is limited to Congolese air space and the drones are strictly for surveillance purposes so that the UN can better track population fluxes, the movement of armed groups and areas of the country that are typically difficult to monitor. “They sorely need dedicated ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance] capabilities,” said Micah Zenko, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The hold up isn’t opposition to drones, per se, but more typical funding issues.”...more