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By Rodrigo Santos Andrade
Asia’s drone wars: Who is buying Predator and Reaper drones? | Asian Insider podcast
visibility comment0 event January 9, 2026 timer 06:01
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):
0:00 Intro
2:55 ‘The future is in unmanned systems’
6:04 ‘Hey, there’s an UAV flying right alongside me’
7:19 Asian militaries buying Predators and eyeing EMALS: India, Japan, Taiwan, Asean
15:41 Can US go it alone in defence research?
18:37 Does unmanned raise risk of war?
23:01 ‘There will always be pilots’
Read Ravi’s columns: https://str.sg/3xRP
Follow Ravi on X: https://twitter.com/RaviVelloor
Sign up for ST’s weekly Asian Insider newsletter: https://str.sg/sfpz
Host: Ravi Velloor ([email protected])
Produced and edited by: Fa’izah Sani
Executive producer: Ernest Luis
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