Legal concerns about the use of unmanned technology like airborne drones, as well as operations in cyberspace, have prompted the U.S. Navy to focus some of its own lawyers on the potential implications.
"As legal issues come forward with regard to unmanned systems and targeting and disrupting the flow of information, there are going to be legal issues that come up and issues related to the law of war," said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead on Nov. 2 after a session on unmanned naval technology at the Brookings Institute this morning.
"We have to have people who really think about that and study it and provide good advice to our commanders," he said.
Roughead spoke during the session with Peter W. Singer, a senior fellow at the think tank and the author of a book about robotics in war.
The admiral said a section of staff at the Navy's Judge Advocate General headquarters will be directed to look at legal questions as unmanned systems such as surveillance and attack drones enter military forces in greater numbers.
"I personally think that as we move into the world of cyber, there's going to be a lot of legal issues associated with it," he said.
Military leaders regularly rely on legal advisers in their command over thorny problems such as rules of engagement.
"As we are developing operators that understand this world, we also have to have a companion piece of our JAGs, who have been trained, have experience and are thinking about what are the ramifications of what we're doing," he said. "Because if we don't have that type of a specialist, if you will, among our operational lawyers, I don't know how you get your head around some of the operational law issues that we're going to deal with."
He said the "genesis" of looking at this new legal area came with the advent of cyberwarfare. The Navy recently stood up Fleet Cyber Command/10th Fleet, a component command to U.S. Cyber Command. Likewise the Navy is increasing its interest in and use of unmanned aerial, surface and undersea vehicles for a variety of uses.
"I think it's a whole new era that we have to be thinking about," he said, "and it's not just about the vehicle."
The Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program is ready to test a few components that soldiers may have in their hands by 2010.
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