• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Gameranx

Gameranx

Video Game News, Lists & Guides

  • News
  • Features
  • Platforms
    • Xbox Series X
    • PS5
    • Nintendo
  • Videos
  • Upcoming Games
  • Guides
  • News
  • Features
  • Platforms
    • Xbox Series X
    • PS5
    • Nintendo
  • Videos
  • Upcoming Games
  • Guides

Piloting Drone Aircraft is ‘Not Like a Video Game,’ Say Pilots

September 26, 2012 by Kris Ligman

RAF pilots describe long hours on the job, psychological cost.

Chris Cole, director of the Drone Wars website, argues that the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in use in military operations against Taliban and Al Qaeda forces in the Middle East promote a “Playstation Mentality.”

Young military personnel raised on a diet of video games now kill real people remotely using joysticks. Far removed from the human consequences of their actions, how will this generation of fighters value the right to life?

Drone pilots, such as those in the United Kingdom’s RAF, bristle at such a suggestion. Stationed remotely thousands of miles from where their planes are flying, these RAF pilots –many of whom are middle-aged family men– work in eight hour shifts from server room cockpits, studying the video feeds sent back via satellite and communicating with Afghanistan ground control over IRC. Pains are taken to establish the airforce atmosphere: pilots sit in leather flight seats and wear flight suits, and while the pilots do navigate the planes by way of Xbox 360-styled joysticks, there is no idle chatter, far less any trash talk.

“I’ve had the accusation levelled that it’s a Star Wars game,” says RAF Reaper pilot Oz who comes from three tours of duty in reconnaisance fast-jets. “It’s anything but. If we act like it’s Star Wars, there are people in the command centre watching us and listening to what we do. The taking of human life is not something to be considered lightly. OK, they are bad guys we are killing, but they are still human beings.”

The Telegraph’s Rob Blackhurst notes that the RAF no longer uses the word “compound” to describe civilian buildings they happen to surveil: “It obscures the simple truth that these are houses. As one senior commander told me, ‘We’re trying to get it into the guys’ heads that this is not compound no 28, it’s 34 Acacia Drive – so you don’t hit it.'”

It’s a far cry from the adrenaline-addled, Mountain Dew chugging core gamer “Playstation Mentality” Cole decries. More than anything, pilots report growing exhausted from the sheer tedium of the job.

Does it get boring? Winston, the US Reaper pilot, admits, ‘The honest answer is yes. You may get information that the unit is going into an area in three days and you’re told, “Don’t take your eyes off that building.” So you will fly in a circle for an eight-hour shift looking at it […] You try and find humorous things. You see kids getting into fights and you’ll watch that, or traffic jams where some guy moves his goats across the road and people get upset.’

A few things go unstated: whether it’s truly ungamelike given how much drone piloting commands focus and patience, to say nothing of whether it’s appropriate that the West be an occupying force in the region. Surely, the drone pilots are fighting “the bad guys,” and the RAF seem quite committed to avoiding civilian casualties, but is a multi-million dollar machine filled with and run by expensive electronic hardware, the manufacture of which fuels violent conflicts elsewhere in the world, really a sterling example of ethical best practices?

Whatever the overarching issues, it seems clear that the actual pilots at the controls take their jobs very seriously.

Via Business Insider.

Header via UK Crown.

Share this post:

FacebookTwitterLinkedInPinterest

Recent Videos

20 INSANELY FAST Games That FORCE YOU TO THINK FAST

20 INSANELY FAST Games That FORCE YOU TO THINK FAST

Switch 2: 10 Tips & Tricks You PROBABLY DIDN'T KNOW

Switch 2: 10 Tips & Tricks You PROBABLY DIDN'T KNOW

10 AA Games That Were ALMOST A MASTERPIECE

10 AA Games That Were ALMOST A MASTERPIECE

10 Games That Were Also EXPECTED TO FAIL

10 Games That Were Also EXPECTED TO FAIL

The Alters - Before You Buy

The Alters - Before You Buy

GAMESTOP MAKES BIG DECISION, GTA 6 MUSIC LEAK? & MORE

GAMESTOP MAKES BIG DECISION, GTA 6 MUSIC LEAK? & MORE

XBOX Handheld: 10 Things You NEED TO KNOW

XBOX Handheld: 10 Things You NEED TO KNOW

Mindseye - Before You Buy

Mindseye - Before You Buy

Dune Awakening - Before You Buy

Dune Awakening - Before You Buy

Category: Updates

Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • Rumor: Shift Up Undecided On Switch 2 Port For Stellar Blade, But Recently Received Dev Kits
  • WB Games Has Restructured By Promoting Bosses Of Studios Like NetherRealm To Top Management Positions
  • Marathon Has Been Officially Delayed To An Undetermined Date, Update Coming This Fall
  • Fortnite: All Returning Weapons in Season 4 OG
  • Five Nights at Freddy’s: Secret of the Mimic – All Codes & Password Solutions

Copyright © 2025 · Gameranx · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Mai Theme