The Past and Future of Drones in the U.S. (w/Infographic)

Each and every day seems to arrive with news about drones. Less than 10 years ago it was considered the height of conspiracy theory to suggest that unmanned aerial vehicles would be roaming the planet conducting surveillance. Killing people by remote control? Impossible. Flying over the U.S.? Ridiculous.

Not so ridiculous now. All that is left to wonder is how much more the military-industrial complex has in store for humanity. Two recent developments do not bode well. The first is that a South African company intends to imminently deploy riot drones to crush a union protest that is affecting platinum mine production. Anti-protest drones have also been proposed for the United States. Once this gets the green light, human rights will deteriorate exponentially.

The second development is the increasing miniaturization of drone technology. The stated goal is to model the next-generation drones on nature itself – with the same ability to fly in formation, swarm, and attack targets.

The following infographic does a superlative job of tracing the history of drones in one single, comprehensive image. Drones were introduced much longer ago than you might imagine. We would also point you to our extensive drone coverage which you can find in our drone archives here. The global drone arms race is now upon us.