Drones are everywhere. Their uses are almost beyond count, from the lethal, to the beneficial, to the bone-headed (think spying on a rival soccer team). They represent one of the great technological leaps forward of our time.
Drones have even made dictionaries out of date. My cherished, but yellowing, Oxford English Dictionary defines “drone” as “a male of the honey-bee. It is a non-worker.” Too true in its day — the drone was only good for mating.
Contemporary drones don’t mate (but they are good for wedding photographs). Their work capabilities are astounding. Their future, unlimited.
Drones are redefining warfare, with Ukraine the test-bed. Ukraine and its Russian invader are working to deploy more drones, more quickly, and use them more effectively and at longer ranges. A race is on between the offence, likely to be shaped by AI-driven “swarms” of drones, and the defence, dominated by electronic warfare to scramble the brains and sight of armed drones, rendering them ineffective.
But we shouldn’t just think of drones as bomb carriers in a terrible war, as inexplicable blunders in Olympic soccer or as hobbyist toys. They have major applications in commerce, public safety, the arts and even space exploration.
Commercial applications include drone deliveries of goods (thank you for that pizza!), future drone taxis and real-estate sales pitches, but are really centred on agriculture and industrial inspection. Use of drones to monitor crop health and fight bug infestations is on the rise. Drone bug cannons are in the works. Industry uses drones to keep tabs on critical infrastructure, especially the health of pipelines, electrical power grids and dams. France is trying to secure its high-speed rail lines using drone surveillance after disruptive arson attacks on the eve of the Olympics.
Public safety can be enhanced through the use of drones in innumerable ways — to help monitor wildfires, the aftermath of extreme weather events and track coastal erosion. They can be a great aid to search and rescue missions in remote areas, to deliver aid to disaster zones and medicines to remote communities. Police use them to monitor events where violence or emergencies may occur. They could be an aid to border security in unmonitored stretches, alongside facial recognition technology. Expect to see them hovering over political rallies in Election Year 2025.
Hollywood blockbusters like “Skyfall” and “Jurassic World” have been notable benefactors of drone imagery, too. A 2017 film, “The Greatest Showman” even featured a scene where a stuntman (for Hugh Jackman) catches a drone. Don’t try it.
If you are planning a mission to the moon, or maybe Mars, be sure to take a drone. NASA’s little “Ingenuity” drone flew an amazing 72 missions over the Mars surface between 2021 and 2024.
Like all fast-moving technologies, drone advances have far outstripped public understanding of them. Students at McGill’s Max Bell School of Public Policy did an innovative study in 2021 on the social acceptability of drones, looking at safety, security and privacy. We will need more of these studies, not least to ensure we have the right legal and ethical guardrails in place. Transport Canada has the federal government regulatory lead when it comes to drone technology. Its 2021 strategy promises, among other things, to increase public knowledge and acceptance of drones and to engage with other levels of government on the matter, including municipalities and Indigenous communities.
Industry must keep pace with the scale of change, moving from a promising multitude of start-ups with real innovation potential, to scaling to global output and competition. One study found 1,000 drone companies in Canada, nearly half of which were less than five years old. But one company, DJI, headquartered in Shenzhen, China, currently holds about 75 per cent of the Canadian commercial market.
Canada’s commitment, announced in February 2024, to supply Ukraine with 800 made-in-Canada surveillance drones with sophisticated camera technology may help give wider aspects of the industry a boost. It is one area where Canadian military assistance to Ukraine could be greatly expanded, to help meet Ukraine’s goal of providing one million drones per year to its armed forces.
Here at home, acquiring drones was one of the many promises contained in April’s defence policy update to help secure Arctic sovereignty. I am sure Inuit communities would like to have drones for other purposes, as well — monitoring permafrost melt, helping with fishing, protecting biodiversity and monitoring sea ice change.
Like many areas of modern technology, military innovation with drones has driven civil application. Now, we need to get the public use and economic prosperity equation right. Update that dictionary!
National Post
Wesley Wark is a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). He writes a substack newsletter on intelligence and national security issues at wesleywark.substack.com