Morality and Ethics

Morality and Ethics in Warfare with UAS

Shannon D. Gibson

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

ASCI 638 Activity 9

March 8, 2015

             Morality is the ability to make a decision when knowing something is right or wrong. Ethics is the very foundation that the person has been taught that allows him or her to make the distinction between right and wrong.                                                     

            There are numerous issues in regards to the morality and ethics when using UAS’s in modern warfare. Some would say we are taking the human out of the equation, but I believe the human variable is still very much involved. It takes a human to program the UAS to do the job or mission of someone’s choice.  It could possibly make the decision easier in the context that one might not feel the same conscientious choice is made since they are not actually pulling the trigger. However, pulling the “trigger” remotely is still essentially the same thing. In a manned aircraft that has the ability to drop bombs, the person sitting in the cockpit has the final physical authority to hit the switch that actually drops a bomb. When controlling a UAS, depending on the type of ground control station (GCS), the pilot operating the system may have the exact same weapons release choice, and it’s just done remotely as opposed to being in the aircraft itself. Having said this, and the technology that is currently on the market for sale, I am pro (or for) having the UAS do the dirty work remotely. My reasoning brings future problems to the table to dissect, but currently, it provides a safer environment for our pilots. Having been over seas in dangerous areas, and controlling aircraft to “hot-areas”, I prefer to keep Americans safe rather than send them in harms way. On the flip side, this means the technology is available to our enemies as well.

            In a previous assignment we looked at the idea of robots making the “kill” decision. I believe that in the future, if its not already done in classified technology, that this will come to pass in some form. This is the instance that my stance may change. For instance, we have policemen on the streets that add human factor thoughts and judgments to when and where to use lethal force. Although this opens the door to human error, it also saves lives. I am not technology educated enough to speak on programming, but I wonder if a robot can choose when and where it would be appropriate to open fire on a person. The same goes for a UAS that is programmed to open fire.  Can a UAS be programmed to analyze the civilian casualties that would be sustained? Whould a UAS know when the risk is too high to surrounding children and opening fire is simply a bad idea? I think not because it would be feelings and thoughts that would dissuade a human being. A computer can simply not feel and take loss of life when innocents are involved. When a manned aircraft is sent on mission, and is directed to drop a missile or bomb on an area, the aircraft itself is controlled by a pilot and is receiving intel by a large group on specialized people on the ground.  If the pilot fly’s into theater and see’s or realizes that the situation is different than the perceived intel gave him/her, he can simply choose not to release weapons and return to base. If the UAS is given coordinates and sent to destroy something, how can it make the decision that the situation is not as originally perceived? The choice to end lives should never be handed to a computer or a program. Human thought should always be there to provide the moral and ethical decision making process.