In episode 6 I am looking at the evolution of unmanned platforms and speculate about the impact that they could have on warfare. The technology is evolving faster than our appreciation for the complications it will bring so while there will be countless positive benefits there will also unquestionably be a dark side to it all. Smarter systems are better, and spare innocent lives, but does that mean that less ethical actors could exploit less capable platforms to kill indiscriminately? Does that give them an advantage?

Blogs of War contributor William Tucker also called in to the Covert Contact voicemail line and shared some thoughts on how the U.S. intelligence community should be allocating its resources. I close out the episode with a special drone edition of Five to Follow.

The Week's Five to Follow

@GregoryMcNeal - Professor working in law & public policy and a Forbes magazine contributor. His blog can be found at http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregorymcneal/.

@DIYDrones - The worlds largest RPAS community with over 50,000 members.

@chr1sa - Ex-Wired Editor in Chief, 3D Robotics CEO, DIY Drone founder.

@dronelaws - Brendan M. Schulman is a lawyer who specializes in commercial drone law.

@drunkenpredator - Knowledgeable commentary on drones cloaked in humor.