# drones in non-wars

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drones-in-non-wars/610365>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 23, 2012, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drones-in-non-wars/610365 "2012-01-23T03:48:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drones-in-non-wars/610365/1 "2012-01-23T03:48:59Z")

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The US uses armed drones in several different countries around the world. Pakistan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia come to mind. I suspect there are others. My question is, what will happen when other countries start doing the same? Many countries have drones-China, Iran, Israel, Britain, and many others. What will happen if say, Israel uses a drone in someplace other than Somalia? Say, Iran. And what happens if Iran does the same?

And the next question is: could they? The US drones mostly require and use satellite links. I assume that would not be possible for other countries. Britain has built it’s own military communication satellites, but as far as I have heard there are no other countries fielding that technology. I guess Russia could and may have, and probably China could, but I haven’t heard that they have. Now certainly a ship and another drone could act as a poor man’s satellite, but there are obvious risks for any country to do that.

So, dopers, what will happen if/when other countries engage in covert non-wars like the US?