Uav drone arrow12/2/2023 In 1363, Edward III enacted the Archery Law, which demanded all capable men to practice their skills on Sundays and holidays. At the same time, the government made archery a national priority. In the decades before the Battle of Agincourt, master craftsmen developed the size, girth and pliability of wood to make the longbow more effective. As such, England’s success with the longbow took nearly a century to develop. Despite its remarkable power, the longbow was cumbersome to deploy, requiring years to develop the skill and muscles to use it effectively. The longbow allowed an archer to kill from a distance of 200 yards and penetrate armor from 100. Various reports marveled at the weapon’s force and accuracy. One observer later described the blood-soaked fields as being covered by snow because of the vast amount of white feathers left behind by the arrows. Firing up to 12 arrows a minute, the English showered defeat upon the heavily armored French troops. In 1415, the Battle of Agincourt showcased how the longbow turned the tide of war when a British army primarily made up of longbow men defeated a French army more than five times its size. No weapon so defined a national identity as the longbow did for the English in the Middle Ages. ''You needed your potential enemy to know that you had catapults so they would not attack you in the first place.'' “You didn't just have to have catapults to use them,'' Cuomo told the New York Times. Historian Serafina Cuomo stresses that the catapult in its time was as much a psychological weapon as a tactical one. However by the time Philip of Macedonia set out to conquer the world, he was strategically employing the more sophisticated cord-powered torsion catapult for his foreign sieges. And for the most part, the Greeks preferred it that way. The Greek historian Plutarch reported that when the catapult’s long-range power was first demonstrated to Archidamos III, the King of Sparta, he cried out, “By Heracles, this is the end of man's valor.” At the time, battles, fought mostly hand-to-hand with swords, spears and brute force, were a show of strength, not technical ingenuity. Later rocks, projectiles, and flammable material were added to the arsenal in addition to arrows. Indeed, its Greek name “Katapeltes” roughly translates into shield crusher, and the intent of the weapon was to pierce armor as well as fly arrows over walls and armies. As the size of the arrows launched from the catapult increased, so did its range and impact. The catapult emerged around 400 BC as military technicians slowly increased the size of a bow until a single man could no longer control it and it became a free-standing weapon all its own. In ancient Greece, the catapult was among the first weapons that rained down hell on the heads of the enemy. We look at seven such weapons through human history. But every historical period has had its own drone-like revolution, a weapon that appeared to transform the very nature of war by distancing one side from the violence of battle. In Legitimacy and Drones: Investigating the Legality, Morality and Efficacy of UCAVs, Delphine Hayim notes that, “The strongest claim in favor of clean war is definitely the unprecedented level of targeting accuracy of remote piloted systems.” The discourse of “surgical strikes” and “laser precision” around drones promote the idea that military affairs are becoming more like modern medicine. One issue raised by the film’s vision of drone technology is the idea of a clean war, the dream that more advanced military technology might render military affairs devoid of risk and danger. “It’s a movie about morally complex questions and very real ethical dilemmas set in the world of modern drone warfare,” explains Hood. But the story is about much more than military hardware. With its dizzying array of micro aerial vehicles, Reaper drones and Hellfire missiles, Gavin Hood’s EYE IN THE SKY captures with nail-biting suspense the chilling reality of modern warfare.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |