Here’s an interesting thought. In 2003, when the US defeated Saddam Hussein, America logged around 35,000 flight hours using un-manned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drone aircraft to you and me). By 2009 this figure had increased to 800,000 hours and the market for UAVs is now worth almost $5 billion globally. Countries that use UAVs now include the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Georgia and Sri-Lanka and the US military expects to spend $22 billion developing drones between 2007 and 2013.

Why the growth? Cost primarily. Operating costs of drone fleets can be 5% of conventional aircraft fleets. Drones can be harder to spot or shoot down and losses matter less because there are no human pilots involved.

But what happens when very high cost is replaced by very low cost? Will countries be more willing to take risks or do something silly? If direct human judgement in the air is replaced by human judgement filtered through a screen (far away from the actual action) what will the consequences be? I guess we’ll find out.