UN panel urges more drone use in peacekeeping missions

Washington

A UNITED Nations panel assessing the future technological needs of peacekeeping missions has recommended dramatically expanding the use of unmanned surveillance drones in UN military operations, the head of the panel said on Monday.

Jane Holl Lute, who was previously US deputy secretary for homeland security and a senior UN peacekeeping official, said that was one of 119 recommendations that the expert panel on technology and innovation in UN peacekeeping made in a new report. "We make a very strong recommendation that drones, or the capacity for aerial visualisation, is a capacity every mission should have with very few exceptions," Ms Lute, who led the expert panel, told reporters.