The Grim Reaper

Jeanine Tesori’s opera Grounded, based on George Brant’s award-winning play of the same title, tackles a phenomenon that has become pervasive but is rarely discussed: drone technology. “Drone” is shorthand for a device more formally designated as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), or remotely piloted vehicle (RPV). In simplest terms, drones are aircraft operated without any onboard crew or passengers. They can be employed in a variety of settings beyond warfare—for example, taking aerial photography, tracking storms and weather systems, searching for missing persons, delivering goods, and even providing entertainment through colorful light shows.

Drone technology was initially used during the First World War. American forces developed an aerial torpedo called the Kettering Bug, while the British worked on a small radio-controlled vehicle called the Aerial Target. Both were tested, but neither was used in combat. In the 1930s, a biplane nicknamed the Queen Bee was used by the Royal Navy for anti-aircraft target practice. The radio-controlled aircraft could fly as high as 17,000 feet and travel a maximum distance of 300 miles at more than 100 miles per hour.

Drones were not widely used in active combat until the Vietnam War, although they were less frequently deployed as weapons. During the 20-year conflict, UAVs were used by the U.S. military for decoy missions, surveillance and reconnaissance, psychological warfare like dropping leaflets, and intercepting signals, among others. In more recent military conflicts—especially the American War on Terror following September 11, 2001; the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine; and in the cycles of violence among various militaries and militias in the Middle East and Africa—the use of UAVs has expanded exponentially, including widespread use for targeted attacks and battlefield reconnaissance and targeting. In the United States, the MQ-1 Predator, the first widely used member of the modern generation of large, sophisticated, and tremendously lethal drones, was developed in the 1990s for precision strikes using Hellfire missiles.

In this capacity, drone technology has two crucial advantages: first, it eliminates the threat of danger for the pilot and crew since they are removed from the actual scene of battle; and second, these vehicles can operate for up to 42 hours consecutively, allowing missions to continue unabated while different teams take turns operating the device. (In 2022, the U.S. Army tested a solar-powered, ultra-long endurance drone, the Airbus Zephyr 8, that remained in flight for 64 consecutive days before crashing.)

In the 21st century, drones have increasingly been used for targeted attacks— including in countries where the United States is not officially militarily involved, and their use expanded drastically as the War on Terror dragged on. President Barack Obama ordered ten times more counter-terror drone strikes than the Bush administration, including hundreds in Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia—often resulting in civilian deaths. From 2004 to 2013, the U.S. carried out approximately 455 drone strikes in these three countries, resulting in an estimated 4,061 combatant and civilian deaths. (You can watch an interactive graphic detailing every drone strike in Pakistan between 2004 and 2015 at drones.pitchinteractive.com.) The number of drone strikes continued to increase and peaked during the Trump administration before falling drastically after the election of Joe Biden and his withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.

The U.S. military currently uses more than 8,000 UAVs, some of which can take up to 170 people to operate and maintain. In the U.S. alone, more than 5,000 public safety agencies use drones for various purposes, and the Federal Aviation Administration reported in 2023 that it had registered 871,000 drones and 307,000 certified remote pilots. Drone warfare also comes with a hefty price tag: One Global Hawk Drone costs about $103 million, while a Reaper drone of the type operated by the Kill Chain in Grounded costs roughly $30 million.