Combat at Gamer's Pace – No Pause nor Reset Button. The image-space of contemporary warfare

"The claws were bad enough in the first place – nasty, crawling little death-robots. But when they began to imitate their creators, it was time for the human race to make peace – if it could! […] Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of mid-day. A metal sphere. It raced up the hill after the Russian, its treads flying. It was small, one of the baby ones. Its claws were out, two razor projections spinning in a blur of white steel. The Russian heard it. He turned instantly, firing. The sphere dissolved into particles. But already a second had emerged and was following the first. The Russian fired again. A third sphere leaped up the Russian's leg, clicking and whirring. It jumped to the shoulder. The spinning blades disappeared into the Russian's throat.
Eric relaxed. 'Well, that's that. God, those damn things give me the creeps. Sometimes I think we were better off before".

Philip K. Dick 1953, 3

Second Variety is a science novel by American writer Philip K. Dick set in a world where war between the Soviet Union and the United Nations has reduced most of the world to a bare wasteland. The plot evolves from discovery by the few remaining soldiers that the self-replicating Claws-robots originally built to assassinate Soviet agents, have gained sentience and are plotting against both sides now. #Philip K. Dick, #armed drone

Our longtime obsession with autonomous weapons, as expressed in Dick's story, is not only manifested in fiction but also forms a subject for a broad scope of studies. Recently, it became epitomised in the power and dominance of drone technology extended to the networks and Big Data. The incorporation of vision into automatic and robotic systems, especially unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), calls for an advanced interrogation of the politics of images that is complicated by current military technology. As pointed out by Tom Holert: "Arguably, the image-space of contemporary warfare is the most sophisticated and saturated of all time, replete with full-motion video, tracking data, thermal sensing, hyperspectral imaging, adaptive direct sampling, mobile data, 3D-mapping, etc., however difficult it may be to maintain high-level operability of these technologies in actual situations in the networked theatre of war" (Holert 2016, 103).#armed drone, #operative image

Antoine Bousquet supports this view in his discussion of the "scopic regime" of cultural theory, which requires the inclusion of "martial gaze" (Pong & Richardson 2024, 21). While the scopic regime is mainly concerned with the politics of image, the controversy surrounding targeted killing with drones leads to the discussion of how politics shapes visuals. But given the privileged position of those who can see from a drone, isn't it the other way around: the drone view determines how visuals determine politics? For instance, hyper-sensing technology supposedly can reveal the true essence of targets, the assumption that underlies the legitimacy of violence delivered from this perspective. Consequently, moving away from political iconography theories that examine how symbols shape political preferences, identities, and behaviours, the rhetoric of power functions through naturalised technologies of vision and the Western notion of vision as a concept. #scopic regime, #armed drone, #martial gaze

The idea of vision and the idea as vision have a long history. Mitchell reminds us that Western culture is guided by a visual paradigm and the concept is supported by Jenks: "the manner in which we have to come to understand the concept of an 'idea' is deeply bound up with the issues of 'appearance', of picture, and of image" (Jenks 1995, 1). Jenks refers to early Wittgenstein's formula that, "a picture is a fact" and "a logical picture of facts is a thought" (cited in Jenks 1995). Moreover, according to Jay, the project of Modernity was most effectively achieved through the privileging of "sight" and the modern world is very much a "seen phenomenon". This concept, rooted in scientism, suggests a positivist approach that introduces the idea that "what can be seen can also be believed in," through the highly influential works of Auguste Comte, an ideology of pure, immediate perception. Eventually, Western culture became fixed on the visual as a 'plain view' of reality. In the twentieth century with the development of media technologies, public representation such as TV, film, video, photography and advertising appear to provide us with "the most immediate access to 'other' through frozen, stored, contrived, and re-presented images" (ibid. 10). #vision, #image theory

As Benjamin famously noted, the area of visual knowledge became one of the artefacts and cultural products of mechanical reproduction. Jenks notes that all forms of understanding generate a partial view of the world: "however hard they may strive through systems theory, subcultural theory, phenomenologies or neo-Marxism, such perspectives cannot recreate the living whole" (ibid. 7). The issue of abstraction, extracting of essences, elements or generalities from an original plane is one of concern: "The new world, the created level, the (re)presentation, provides the potential arena for the manipulation and control of images. Images become infinitely malleable once freed from their original context, whilst still retaining significations within that original context" (ibid. 8).#vision, #image theory, #Walter Benjamin

Abstraction leads to uncertainty about which image (re)presents the world or, rather, the infinite 'multiple realities' that encompass all human experience. In current circumstances, the original or 'authentic' experience is marginalised and almost non-existent when compared to the media production of war, which is not only limited to mediation but also shapes the practice of war itself. Similarly, the conduct of war cannot be understood without carefully considering the role of media, as media representation must be approached through a critique of a visual paradigm.#image theory, #media

Derealisation

In general, technology that largely shaped the public sphere also mobilised the power released from the unhinging and recollection of senses. This power became most evident in military technology, especially as this technology was increasingly trained on urban sites in two world wars. The rapid development of technology was driven by the needs of the military industry, which sought technological advances to free warfare from the limitations of reality. For instance, 3D image-enhancement technology offers far greater capabilities for electro-optical images to be manipulated using digital techniques. An electro-optical system can detect 256 shades of grey, while the human eye can detect only about 30 shades. Therefore, if an object is parked in the shadow of a building, each individual pixel of the image could be altered to identify targets that otherwise could not be seen by the human eye (U.S. Army, 1996).#military, #operative image

According to military tactics, if the target can be seen it can be destroyed. The advertising slogan for Comanche helicopter: "Whatever threat Comanche detects is history" is particular noteworthy at this respect (cited in Bishop & Phillips 2010, 63). This example reflects the thinking of Paul Virilio about the relation between speed and the aesthetics of disappearance, mainly the convergence of perception and lethality. Since the invention of the photogramme, the further development of instant photography and cinematography has led us to an aesthetic of disappearance (Virilio 1989). The primary shift occurred in the realm of perception, and the expanding knowledge (or at least, data) was now accessible solely by machines. Similarly, modern life, subjected to the camera's gaze, incorporates attributes that were previously external to it. The power of division, which remains unrepresentable, unites the subject and object to synthesise presence. The impact and target precision have been growing constantly with each war. Eventually, the organic perception is abolished and replaced with a technological super-perception. The division between organic and technological forms an essential foundation for military technology. For instance, organic is considered too slow and imperfect; therefore, its augmentation by prosthetic addition ultimately requires complete replacement.#Paul Virilio, #media, #perception

In seeking to establish the underlying currents of contemporary perceptions, Bishop and Philips observed that the development of contemporary military technology coincides with an era of active experiments in art. Even though theatres of war and museums of modern art coexist as separate entities, there is an overlooked connection between the two domains. This resonates with Bishop and Philips' analyses of military machine design, oddly striving to make its appearance as striking as its capabilities. In their view, military technology explores the power of the aesthetic, which is intimately connected to technology. The visionary and divisionary power resides at the heart of techno-science. #perception, #techno-science

Take the case of the Bell helicopter, which is designed for all weather conditions, day or night, allowing four fields of view: wide, medium, narrow, and narrow zoom for long-distance precision targeting, moreover, targeting and firing can be controlled remotely, overcoming the pilot's limited point of view. What would be the role of the aesthetic aspect of its design? The division between the instrumental and the aesthetic is blurred as evident from advertising text: "We made it beautiful. Because it's the last thing some people will ever see. The AH-IZ. First, it frustrates the enemy with a Target Sight System that detects, recognises and identifies them at extreme ranges. Then, it demonstrates the versatility of the widest array of ordnance available. Finally, if you wish, it permits the enemy to view a state-of-the-art helicopter like no other. The AH-IZ. Unbeatable proof that your mission is our mission" (Bell Textron Helicopter ad, cited in Bishop & Phillips 2010, 50).#targeting, #military, #helicopter

Within the technology domain, the division emerges as the difference between the predicative truth of technology (for instance, the jet engine is fast) and its expressive qualities that have no natural or necessary relations to the truth or falsity but establish a performative level of discourse. To exemplify this idea, consider the example of slow-motion footage. One of the widely recognised stock shots in contemporary films is the take-off of a military fighter in slow motion, such that the audience can perceive its technological splendour. The two forms of technology merge here to create the image of the impossible: the military technology of speeding up of the plane reveals the technology of speed; the aesthetic treatment deploying new media technologies slowing down the plane on film reveals the performative operation of technology in contemporary visual culture.
For the past decades, our performative worldview was extended by the "drone aesthetic", which Beryl Pong and Michael Richardson defined as the machinic capacities "for sensing and sense-making, which constitutes drone system themselves" (Pong & Richardson 2024, 11). #drone aesthetic, #image theory

For instance, the marketing and advertising department of drone producer General Atomics purchases the services of illustrators, animation artists and movie directors to visualise and promote its drone range. The advertising does not even attempt to appear realistic; instead, it employs B-movie aesthetics, which completely derealize the operations of drone warfare. Freed from the original context, the image becomes infinitely malleable, leading to uncertainty about which image (re)presents the world or, rather, what comprises the infinite 'multiple realities' of all humanity experience. General Atomics' advertising of the Avenger drone, as many others, renders warfare and the business of high-tech destructive technology as clean, aseptic entertainment without any criticism launched against the military-entertainment complex. However, the proliferation of drones and incorporation of consumer drones in war, challenges the promise of a 'brave new world' that is 'white', it is 'clean' and just 'better', because it is created by 'white'. 'clean' and 'better' media technologies (Hepp 2019).#image theory, #armed drone

Consumer drones and the subversion of military power

When boundaries between the military and the domestic disintegrate, we might ask what makes current politics visible and possible. The performative level questions who addresses whom, how the power works and to what effect. It is worth remembering that we do not simply become freer with increased technological capabilities; rather, the technologies that constitute our capabilities also constitute the power relations according to which bodies function in the system simultaneously (Foucault 1991). It is not surprising that the complex structure of the "performative condition" of the modern world requires new knowledge and a different set of tools for critical analysis than those developed within traditional philosophical concepts.#performativity

As our perception was irreversibly altered by technology, so was the notion of performance. John McKenzie extends the idea of performance by arguing about the intersections between different types of cultural, organisational and technological performances. He traces military research in the USA during the Cold War, which redefined American science. In response to the demands for sophisticated weaponry, backed up by political and social forces, scientists pushed the limits of materials, machines, and entire systems by creating higher standards of technological performance. Furthermore, beyond the criteria of "high performance" the criteria of "very high performance" and "ultra-high performance" emerged (McKenzie 2001, 101–102). Eventually, high-performance devices originally developed for the military made their way into our everyday lives by transferring high-performance technologies to consumer and business markets. We can easily envision the robotization of urban services, with drones likely becoming commonplace in the skies of smart cities alongside birds by the year 2050 (Jackman, 2022, 10).#high performance, #automation

As stated by researcher James Pathon Rogers, we are in a "second drone age", and drones are the fastest consumer vehicles, zipping through the air and changing direction in no time. With the second drone age we enter the 'gamification of war', the assembling of virtual and reality that challenges how civil-military relations are conceptualised. The commercialisation of drone technology and its successful integration into the post-panoptic system of military technology relies on the visual rhetoric of power, supremacy and progressiveness. While the main scholarship interrogates the high-end military technologies and state violence, the tactics developed at the Ukrainian frontline make us think about military use of devices that have more in common with toys than military hardware.#armed drone, #gamification

The wide use of the 'wedding' drones DJI Mavic on the Ukrainian battlefield blurs the line between the type of drones used to fight wars and to film weddings. With this new technological leap, the drones that were built for thrills are now rewriting military doctrine.
The state-controlled military equipment is submerged in the chaos of guerilla-style war tactics in the mess of trench warfare, where formidable high-tech military vehicles can be destroyed by a grenade attached to a consumer drone dropped with the right precision. Today's battlefield commercial drones have their roots in hobbyist experimentation, which affects the way war is conducted and perceived. Commonly referred to as the 'eyes in the sky', small drones became so essential for maintaining battlefield awareness that soldiers feel themselves as 'blind kittens' on the frontline without the UAVs. The adapted off-the-shelf models swarm the front line and are more deadly than heavy artillery. The drone usage will only escalate as both the defending and attacking forces seek an edge in identifying and striking their targets. Consumer technologies are much cheaper and develop faster than military technology and would be incorporated in warfare even more in the future.#consumer drones

As suggested by the media, consumer drones are democratising warfare by providing militaries with new ways to conduct reconnaissance, gather intelligence, and deliver weapons. Evidently, with the development of consumer devices, people have means to participate in war in ways that have never previously been available. One example is the Ukrainian government initiative Drone Amy, which collects civilian and commercial drones for the Ukrainian regular and volunteer forces.#consumer drones, #armed drone

The regular presence of small, unidentifiable drones over conflict causes confusion, fear and disgust. Civilians and soldiers on the ground cannot know who's watching them, and for what purpose. In reality the drone war is a catastrophe for people on the ground, both sides repeatedly strike blows on the enemy with cheap kamikaze drones. Even if these drones don't release bombs, soldiers have learned to fear the buzzing of quadcopter engines overhead as the flights often foreshadow an incoming artillery barrage. In one moment, a squad as a flicker of light, visible in thermal imaging, is captured by a drone camera shared with the tablet of an enemy hiding nearby. In the next, the soldiers' execution is filmed from above, captured in 4K resolution by a weapon available for sale at any Best Buy. On Twitter in July 2022, Mykhailo Federov, Ukraine's minister of digital transformation, made an appeal for 'dronations' (in addition to crowdfunding campaigns for cryptocurrency donations) for building up the country's 'army of drones' (cited in Pong 2022, 377-378).#commercial drone, #surveillance, #autonomous weapons

What happens when the underground world of DIY drone building, and drone racing is co-opted by the military? The main shift occurred in the grounds of perception to a post-human transformation of vision and war. The aesthetic of drone vision became a common place for marketing videos and film footages, which alienate and glamorise drone operations, making them socially acceptable. The role of social media in promoting drone warfare in the Ukraine-Russia conflict can't be underestimated, hence the "first Tik Tok war" (Chayka 2022) was key in normalising public opinion by presenting the battlefield through the metaphor of drone piloting as videogame playing.#drone aesthetic, #gamification

This may all sound like an incredibly democratic vision of war where transparency and knowledge imply that states and participants can be identified from digital information flows and, as a result, held to account. Smart devices, apps, archives, and algorithms remove the bystander from war, collapsing the distinctions between witnessing and action, soldier and civilian, media and weapon. This mediatised field of perception was identified as "radical war" by Ford & Hoskins (2022, 11).#witnessing, #data war

Far from producing transparency, however, radical war in practice yields the exact opposite effect. The data flow leads to ambiguity, opaqueness, and cover-up, as well as multiple, fragmentary, and discordant narratives about war. Unable to contain the monsters created out of social media, this processes not only provide cover for traditional forms of warfare and genocide, but also enables entirely new forms (Ford &Hoskins 2022, 30). As McKinney observes, violence increasingly manifests not only as a facet of art but also as a persistent reality in our daily lives. This presence offers an escape hatch, implying that individuals can avoid involvement. Those who depict violence in its various forms appear eager to facilitate a process whereby recipients can transform it into a manageable construct—something that is no longer chaotic and unpredictable but instead structured and defined, possessing a clear outline akin to fiction (Mc Kinney in Prince 2000, 108).#data war, #violence, #drone aesthetic

Gamification of War

Drones have fundamentally transformed the landscape of warfare, and these transformations are ongoing. The battlefield is predominantly observed, recorded, and mediated through drone footage. These 'eyes in the sky' are essential for battlefield control now. While combat units disseminate real-life drone footage, the perception of killing closely resembles the aesthetics of video games. In the past, gamification served as a significant driver of mediatisation, and one could suggest that war is portrayed through gaming technology. Gamification is also the way it is perceived and conducted. Military drones and video games have many similarities, such as the use of screens, headsets, and controllers. In the context of Russia's conflict in Ukraine, the extensive use of uncrewed systems, especially first-person view drones, may lead one to perceive drone warfare as akin to playing Call of Duty.#gamification, #armed drone

Similarly, a recently developed video game called "Death from Above" places players in the role of a Ukrainian FPV drone operator, allowing them to navigate the battlefield, target foes and drop bombs on vehicles. In a recent interview, Chris Panella discussed how operators from Ukraine's special drone unit, Typhoon, liken flying their systems to playing video games. This comparison highlights the skills and strategies that translate from gaming to operating advanced drone technology (Panella, 2025). While the FPV headsets aren't unlike virtual reality systems, the controllers often have mechanisms like those used in video game consoles, such as joysticks. According to Typhoon's commander, gamers excel as drone pilots due to their familiarity with fast-paced scenarios similar to actual drone operations. They possess skills in making quick decisions, reacting promptly, and managing complex systems—crucial abilities in combat. #gamification, #armed drone

Foreseeably, governments around the world are increasingly looking to recruit young people with gaming experience to join their fights. In recruitment, the military typically looks for operators who can quickly learn and adapt to the constantly changing battlefield environments, including gamers. However, these similarities end on a real battlefield where the cost of human lives is escalating with a rapid arms race. "People think flying a military drone is like playing 'Call of Duty,' until they realize there's no restart option," tells a Typhoon operator (ibid). #gamification

Operating a drone on a battlefield is more complex than in gameplay, requiring coordination with command, analysing real-time intelligence, adjusting the drone's technical setup, and overcoming the challenges of signal jamming. Navigating drones to their designated targets presents a considerable challenge, contingent upon the specific conditions of the battlefield. For example, one must take into account the presence of enemy drones and countermeasures, which necessitate avoidance strategies, including potential strikes on drones and efforts to identify the operator. Drone operators are under pressure to make split-second decisions in real-time. According to Roman Kostenko, chairman of the Defence and Intelligence Committee in Ukraine's Parliament, drones have become the primary agents of conflict, accounting for approximately 70% of casualties among Russian and Ukrainian forces. In specific engagements, this figure escalates to an alarming 80% of deaths and injuries (Santora et al. 2025, 4).#armed drone, #data war, #autonomous weapons

Moreover, the evacuation of wounded soldiers from the battlefield became impossible due to immediate drone attacks, which left them suffering for days or even weeks at times. Perhaps autonomous lethal weapons disgust us the most from an ethical point of view. The current discussions point out that autonomous weapons are unacceptable for two main reasons: they remove human oversight that separates the decision-maker from the consequences of their choices, and they deny the human dignity of the victim. The ethics of seeing from a drone, aka god's eye view, which enables the conduct of war from a distance, is controversial in terms of the dehumanising effect of killing as a practice of manhunting. The execution of violence is outsourced to controlled semi-robots as an efficient way to eliminate the enemy while minimising the death toll among the members of the military powers.#autonomous weapons, #drone vision, #violence

While we enter the age of killer robots, there is an urgent need for humanitarians, governments, media, policymakers, and drone-makers to deal with the specific issues around consumer drones in conflict. The complete terror from above threatens to wipe up the possibility of humanity, especially in the case of human observers lacking a clear vision of targets. Technology and information sharing are not the ultimate tools to overcome invisibility. In the field of international relations, Kyle Grayson & Jocelyn Mawdsley argue that "there is always the imperceptible, that over which we cannot be certain, in everything we see" (Grayson & Mawdsley 2018, 2). There is always more to every situation that is visible, and the presence of the invisible might be accepted into the visual field of knowledge. #violence, #consumer drones, #ethics

The Russo-Ukrainian war is the largest drone war in history. With Ukraine losing approximately 10,000 drones a month, the war is a real-time laboratory for the use of commercial UAVs in warfighting by both sides on an unprecedented level (Palathra, 2024). While the military innovations have significantly helped Ukrainian defence, we must consider the ethical implications of technological progress. Overall, war dominated by robots that can't negotiate or show kindness but can only follow and kill is probably not the way to resolve human conflicts. In the absence of established rules of engagement and international laws, consumer drones are employed akin to the futuristic claws envisioned by Philip K. Dick, pursuing any movement indiscriminately. These drones target both military personnel and civilians within seconds, leaving little time for analysis or informed decision-making. In the chaotic environment of combat, the likelihood of errors escalates significantly, and tragically, there exists no reset button to safeguard human lives.
#violence, #ethics, #consumer drones, #armed drone

Note: An earlier and shorter version of this text has been published as Danylyuk, Olga. 2025. "Combat at Gamer's Pace. No Pause nor Reset Button." Body, Space & Technology 24 (1). https://doi.org/10.16995/bst.18480.