Congo - U.N. Mission to Get Drones - NYTimes.com The United Nations announced Thursday that it had selected its first unarmed surveillance drone, an Italian-made plane that will be tried out by peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been engulfed in conflict for nearly two decades. A United Nations spokesman, Martin Nesirky, said the peacekeeping department chose a drone produced by Selex ES that is "capable of carrying a range of payloads including several types of high-resolution sensors."