Psychological implications of drone warfare on the modern warfighter

Drone warfare is a relatively new concept that militaries and defense industries around the world are continuing to develop and formulate adaptive responses to. Although larger and more primitive models of drones have seen combat use in various historical contexts, the ongoing war in Ukraine has demonstrated the utility of smaller models that can be made cheaply using commercial parts. As the war in Ukraine approaches its fourth consecutive year, the global community has witnessed the profound battlefield impact of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used prominently and to devastating effect by both sides. Ukraine has specifically benefitted from the force multiplicative effects of drones, which it has leveraged time and again to help keep pace with the significantly larger Russian military. Drones not only increase combat effectiveness from a practical standpoint but they also have profound ethical and psychological implications from the perspectives of drone operators as well as targeted individuals and communities. Several studies have examined these effects on drone operators, more specifically regarding their potential to raise the risk of developing PTSD through vicarious trauma exposure. However, less research has been conducted on the psychological impacts of drone use on targeted individuals and others affected on the battlefield. The current study examines these psychological impacts based on the current body of evidence as well as conceptually similar experiences of other warfighters in modern conflicts such as improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and snipers.