( CNN ) -- A coalition of protesters marched Saturday under sunny skies to a Royal Air Force base north of London to voice its opposition to the UK 's use of armed drones in Afghanistan . `` People are pretty upset about the idea that Britain will be developing this drone warfare , '' said John Hilary , executive director of War on Want . Some 700 representatives of `` a whole range of different anti-war movements '' participated , many of them arriving in buses from around the country , he said . They made the 4-mile march from the town of Lincoln to Royal Air Force Waddington , about 130 miles north of London , he said . The coalition also includes members of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament , the Drone Campaign Network and Stop the War Coalition . Their march was held two days after the RAF announced that it has begun remotely operating its Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles deployed to Afghanistan from the Lincolnshire airbase . Before that , they had been operated from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada , where the U.S. drone program is located . In a statement , Britain 's Ministry of Defence said its Reaper drone , which is operated in Afghanistan under the command of NATO International Security and Assistance Forces , `` is undoubtedly helping to save the lives of our forces , our allies and those of countless Afghan civilians . '' But the Ministry of Defence itself , in a 2011 Joint Doctrine Note , raised concerns over the increasing use of drones . `` The robot does not care that the target is human or inanimate , terrorist or freedom fighter , savage or barbarian , '' it said . `` A robot can not be driven by anger to carry out illegal actions such as those at My Lai . `` In theory , therefore , autonomy should enable more ethical and legal warfare . However , we must be sure that clear accountability for robotic thought exists and this in itself raises a number of difficult debates . `` Is a programmer guilty of a war crime if a system error leads to an illegal act ? Where is the intent required for an accident to become a crime ? '' Noting that the use of unmanned aerial vehicles is increasing , the report called for the establishment of clear policies outlining their acceptable use . `` There is a danger that time is running out , '' it concluded . `` Is debate and development of policy even still possible , or is the technological genie already out of the ethical bottle , embarking us all on an incremental and involuntary journey towards a Terminator-like reality ? '' Experts in other countries have grappled with similar questions . The use of drones `` builds resentment , facilitates terrorist recruitment and alienates those we should seek to inspire , '' said Kurt Volker , former U.S. ambassador to NATO , in an editorial published last October in the Washington Post . There is no way to be certain that there are no cases of mistaken identity or innocent deaths , he said . Drone use can radicalize populations , said Volker , who now is executive director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University and a senior adviser to the Atlantic Council of the United States . He noted that the United States has no monopoly on the technology . `` Imagine China killing Tibetan separatists that it deemed terrorists or Russia launching drone strikes on Chechens , '' he says . `` What would we say ? '' But a former RAF `` Reaper '' pilot , David Cummins , who has worked in the United States and Britain , defended the program from its critics . `` I 'm not 100 % sure what they are marching against , '' he told CNN in a telephone interview . There is little difference between drones and piloted planes , said the pilot , who joined the Combined Joint Predator Task Force in 2006 in Nevada and left in 2011 . `` Same rules of engagement , same laws of armed conflict , same crews . `` It 's just one is manned and one is unmanned . '' If drone use is indeed immoral , does that mean it would be immoral to fire at an enemy from a naval vessel 50 miles off the coast , asked Cummins . `` Where do you draw the line ? '' Cummins is now working as a vice president in charge of operations at Unmanned Experts , a company that specializes in drone training , equipment and business development . A study published last year by two U.S. universities argued that the `` dominant narrative '' that drones are `` surgically precise and effective '' is false . The strikes have killed far more people than the United States has acknowledged , traumatized innocent people and largely been ineffective , according to the study by the law schools of Stanford and New York University . CNN 's Bharati Naik contributed to this report from London .
`` No to drones , '' says the Drone Campaign Network . The march came two days after the RAF announced its program shift . `` I 'm not 100 % sure what they are marching against , '' a former RAF drone pilot says .