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Home > Asian Insider > S2E57: Asia's drone wars: Who's buying Predators and Reapers?


	Podcast:		Asian Insider
	Episode:		S2E57: Asia's drone wars: Who's buying Predators and Reapers?
	Category:		News & Politics
	Duration:		00:21:58
	Publish Date:		2026-01-08 16:00:00
	Description:		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 5:45 ‘Hey, there’s an UAV flying right alongside me’ 7:00 Asian militaries buying Predators and eyeing EMALS: India, Japan, Taiwan, Asean.. 12:20 Loitering munitions and ‘persistent surveillance’ – Can US go it alone in defence research? 17:00 Does unmanned raise risk of war? 18:00 Space is the next frontier 21:00 ‘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 (velloor@sph.com.sg) Produced and edited by: Fa’izah Sani Executive producer: Ernest Luis Follow Asian Insider Podcast on Fridays here: Channel: https://str.sg/JWa7 Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/JWa8 Spotify: https://str.sg/JWaX Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg SPH Awedio app: https://www.awedio.sg --- Follow more ST podcast channels: All-in-one ST Podcasts channel: https://str.sg/wvz7 Get more updates: http://str.sg/stpodcasts The Usual Place Podcast YouTube: https://str.sg/4Vwsa --- Get The Straits Times app, which has a dedicated podcast player section: The App Store: https://str.sg/icyB Google Play: https://str.sg/icyX --- #STAsianInsider See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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