France is set to arm drones that are currently used exclusively for surveillance and intelligence, a first for the French military, the defence minister said Tuesday, reports The Sacramento Bee.
Florence Parly said the decision will initially apply only to the six unarmed Reaper surveillance drones that France bought from the United States. Most of them, based in Africa's Sahel region, are involved in the fight against Islamic extremists.
Parly did not specify a timeframe for when they would be armed or what kind of weapons would be deployed.
The drones wouldn't become "killer robots," Parly said, stressing that strikes would be governed by strict national and international rules relating to the use of force.
Arming the drones will give them "endurance, discretion, surveillance and strike capability at the right place and the right moment," she said in a speech in the south-east city of Toulon.
Read more of this AP report published in The Sacramento Bee.