A Deadly Shift in Policy? How Britain’s Use of Weaponized Drones, and How it Reports Such Use, Has Changed Since 2015

This article examines how over the past five years Britain’s use of deadly weaponized drone strikes has become routine. It contrasts what happened following two strikes in August 2015 which killed British member of IS, Reyaad Khan, with what happened following subsequent attacks. In particular, it examines why the Government’s justification for the Khan attack － that his death was the only way to prevent a terrorist atrocity on UK soil － is no longer used to justify drone strikes. The paper also shows that RAF drone missions are now seldom reported to the UK parliament or media. Indeed, the only reason we know about many of them is because of Freedom of Information requests by one particular campaigning website.