In Dune, a fiction novel released nearly sixty years ago, the brutally exploitative tech-enabled Harkonnen use remotely-piloted kamikaze drones, “Hunter-Seekers,” to conduct assassinations of their political enemies.
More than a decade ago, the advent of ArduPilot brought quadcopters and drones in general from the cutting edge of technology to the hands of hobbyists and consumers. A forum, DIYDrones, hosted tens of thousands of new developers of the technology.
Only a few years later, in 2015, a teenager in Connecticut attached a pistol to a quadcopter and put the video on YouTube.
Two years after that, in 2017, a short sci-fi film titled “Slaughterbots” was released. It starts with a keynote presentation about a new, artificial-intelligence-enabled quadcopter featuring facial recognition and a shaped explosive charge.
In the film, drones are shown attacking a university campus.
In 2022, an Israeli arms contractor, SMARTSHOOTER, developed a drone capable of firing a sniper rifle while flying.
SMARTSHOOTER develops state-of-the-art Fire Control Systems for small arms that significantly increase weapon accuracy and lethality when engaging static and moving targets, on the ground and in the air, day and night.
With proven “One Shot – One Hit” precision, our SMASH product line empowers defense and security forces by maximizing rifle effectiveness against enemy targets while minimizing friendly casualties and collateral damage.
Based on Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision and Machine Learning technologies, SMASH is also designed to interconnect with other operational resources to form a micro-tactical network that delivers real-time situational awareness.
“Since 2011, Mor and her partner Avshalom Ehrlich at SMARTSHOOTER have been working to develop an innovative fire control system that significantly increases the accuracy and lethality of small arms. This technology, which accurately engages and eliminates static, moving, ground and air targets in day and night operations, greatly enhances mission effectiveness.”
The same year, another Israeli company, ELBIT Systems, published details of their LANIUS drone. In their video advertisement, they reproduced what was shown in “Slaughterbots,” showing their LANIUS detaching from another drone, flying into a building, and exploding on a human.
In 2023, UAVHE of Barcelona published information regarding their development of a drone for long-distance (200 meter range) hog hunting.
In April 2024, Snopes published an article reporting on claims that the Israeli Defense Force had used sniper drones playing recorded audio of crying infants as bait. The article was subtitled, “[t]he IDF has made use of sniper-gun mounted drones in the Israel-Hamas war.”
In June 2024, a report from the Euro-Med Human Rights Watch indicated that the Israeli Defense Force used drones to kill civilians.
In November 2024, National Public Radio reported eyewitness accounts that quadcopters equipped by the Israeli Defense Force with projectile weapons were being used to shoot at and kill civilians.
In one message, she’s interrupted by the sound of four quick gunshots.
“Oh, hear that?” she says casually. “That’s the quadcopter. It’s here most of the time. If I go to the door to get better cell service, the quadcopter starts shooting at me and I have to go back inside. It’s very dangerous.”
In December 2024, the news erupted with reports of unidentified flying objects across the United States: a drone hysteria.
The Federal Aviation Administration activated several temporary flight restrictions, or TFRs, around the same time.
In February 2025, a report was released by the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor indicating extensive use of weaponized quadcopters in Gaza.
Between 2004 and 2020, according to a report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, drone strikes conducted abroad by the United States resulted in between 8,858 and 16,901 deaths. Of these deaths, between 283 and 454 were children.
From NPR:
“We’re reaching a point where there is increasingly diminished human oversight over the practice of killing in war, and also the decision-making process around who lives or dies,” says James Rogers, an expert on drone warfare and emerging technologies at Cornell University.
“No matter how precise your weapon systems are,” he says, “if your intelligence is wrong, then all that precision, that guaranteed destruction of the target, means is the guaranteed death of the wrong person.”
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