ARTHUR HOLLAND MICHEL WIRED MAGAZINE DATE OF PUBLICATION: 12.17.15.
12.17.15
TIME OF PUBLICATION: 7:00 AM.
7:00 AM
See also:
A book that came out a year and two months prior to this article: Richard Whittle’s interesting Predator book which had many of these details – and more:
For archival documents, see
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB484
UAVs have been used since the 19th C to drop ordnance; one of the first recorded usages of drones was by Austrians on August 22, 1849. They launched some 200 pilotless balloons mounted with bombs against the city of Venice. And less than two decades later, balloons were flown in the U.S. Civil War in 1862, with both Confederate and Union forces using them for reconnaissance and bombing sorties. Numerous WWI, II and later weaponizations of aircraft to become what we might now term UCAVs would be for the historians among us to appreciate.
For drone / UCAV use in targeted killing, see
Targeted Killings- Law and Morality in an Asymmetrical World
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/targeted-killings-9780199646487?cc=us&lang=en&
And with respect to the targeted killing of bin Laden (with UAV mission support but ground action) in particular: