[link|http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-07-15-reaper_N.htm|USA Today]

The airplane is the size of a jet fighter, powered by a turboprop engine, able to fly at 300 mph and reach 50,000 feet. It is outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting, and with a ton and a half of guided bombs and missiles.

The Reaper is loaded, but there is no one on board. Its pilot, as it bombs targets in Iraq, will sit at a video console 7,000 miles away in Nevada.

The arrival of these outsized U.S. "hunter-killer" drones, in aviation history's first robot attack squadron, will be a watershed moment even in an Iraq that has seen too many innovative ways to hunt and kill.

Essentially a remotely piloted light bomber. Only a handful of planes, but they will probably be very active.

Jay

Eventually I expect a large percent of military combat planes will be remotely piloted, there are a bunch of advantages.

But currently they are all more prone to going out of control and crashing. The remote pilot simply doesn't get as much or as responsive feedback as a pilot in the plane, and when things go bad they tend to fail totally.

Not to mention that Russia and China are surely working on powerful jamming systems. If we are dependent on remote vehicles in combat, one good jamming system could shut our forces down.

Jay