S2E57: Asia's drone wars: Who's buying Predators and Reapers?

Jan 8, 2026

21:58

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As Asia’s militaries show an increasing appetite to deploy drones – most recently during the Thai-Cambodian skirmishes and the brief India-Pakistan conflict in May, 2025, we speak to the chief executive of the company that makes lethal Unmanned Aerial Systems such as the Predator, Reaper and Sea Guardian.

Synopsis: The Straits Times’ senior columnist Ravi Velloor distils 45 years of experience covering the Asian continent, with expert guests.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Ravi speaks with Dr Vivek Lall, Chief Executive of General Atomics Global Corp, on trends in modern warfare, the rise of data-driven hi-tech weapons, weapons that ‘loiter’ in the air awaiting command from the ground and space as the next frontier of contestation.

They also focus on UASs – in warfare and potentially for civil use – and discuss whether unmanned drones have raised the risk of warfare by not putting pilots directly in harm’s way.

Highlights (click/tap above):

2:46 'The future is in unmanned systems'

5:45 ‘Hey, there’s an UAV flying right alongside me’

7:00 Asian militaries buying Predators and eyeing EMALS: India, Japan, Taiwan, Asean

14:05 Can US go it alone in defence research?

16:43 Does unmanned raise risk of war?

20:32 ‘There will always be pilots’

Read Ravi's columns: https://str.sg/3xRP

Follow Ravi on X: https://twitter.com/RaviVelloor

Host: Ravi Velloor (velloor@sph.com.sg)

Produced and edited by: Fa’izah Sani

Executive producer: Ernest Luis