After six suspected al-Qaeda members were killed in Yemen by a missile said to have been fired from a US drone, defense experts believe spies could take over the lead role from soldiers in the worldwide war on terror.
An official in Washington said that a CIA drone carried out Sunday's attack. Yemen has said it is investigating the cause of the blast.
Clifford Beal, editor of the respected Jane's Defence Weekly, said: "To have a drone that engages and kills people -- that is quite a threshold to cross. This is the beginning of robotic warfare."
"There is underlying tension in the military about using it. The CIA does not have any qualms. This is really the first success story of this system," Beal said.
He said the human factor was still involved in this operation, with a man looking at a TV screen and going through a series of command sequences to press the button.
"The next step is when you have the authority to kill given directly to the robotic vehicle. These drones could be programmed to have a particular target set in their computers," he said.
The dead in Yemen were said to have included Qaed Senyan al-Harthi, also known as Abu Ali, a key suspect in the attack on a US warship two years ago that killed 17 US sailors.
"It doesn't seem they were given the opportunity to surrender. They were taken out Israeli-style," Beal said.
"The Israelis have been using manned helicopters and the Hellfire missile to do the same job. Here you have the Americans doing the same thing but using drones," he said.
The CIA has previously used remote control "Predator" drones to fire missiles at suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
The long-range, unmanned aircraft is able to loiter over a target for 24 hours, providing still photographs or video footage that can be transmitted within six seconds.
It is capable of reading traffic signs from 4.5km away and has been armed with Hellfire air-to-surface missiles.
What intrigued defense experts about Sunday's attack was the admission that it was a CIA and not a military drone.
"It is fascinating that the CIA stood up to be counted," said Andrew Brookes, aerospace specialist at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
"The conventional military has to stop being so prissy and roll its sleeves up," he said. "We are going to see resources and responsibilities re-allocated. The military will be almost marginalized if they don't take part."
Brookes said the might of tanks and fighter aircraft was of little use in a war against terror where the enemy never took to the open battlefield.
"The military has got to stop pretending it can fight with pre Sept. 11 thinking and weapons," he said, referring to the suicide hijacking attacks on the US in September last year.
Martin Edmonds, director of the Center for Defense and International Security Studies, said: "Intelligence services have always had the lead in UAVs [Unmanned Aerial Vehicles].
"What is such a big surprise is that instead of using them for reconnaissance purposes, they have now armed them and been able to use them for attack purposes," Edmonds said.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)