Drones don't talk back, or refuse an order. They will take pictures, or if weaponed, target whatever and whomever they're tasked to.
Actually, they do talk back and refuse orders. See, they were built/designed as engineering demonstrations and the AF bought a LOT of them without putting in place a framework to update the hardware, software, and pilot interface to some semblance of military standards. So while GA has done great work with the USAF in being responsive to urgent operational requirements, the thing still flies like a science fair project.
No ADI. Seriously. No "engine gauge cluster", so you have to look at about 5 separate screens of engineering data to do a single ops check, that in a "real" airplane should take less than 5 seconds looking at a single spot on the panel. The autopilot was designed with airspeed priority, so, lets say your UAV is established in a CAS stack with 10 other aircraft each separated by 1000 ft altitude, and you tell your UAV to accelerate prior to a bomb run, the stupid thing may dive all on its own below its assigned altitude, right through everyone else's altitude, in an attempt to gain airspeed a little faster. Stupid stupid stupid design, but that's what we bought, and we bought so many so fast that we haven't been able to fix it. They did modify the parameters where it switches to altitude priority (based on coefficient of lift not speed, so it's still anyone's guess whether it will do a level or diving acceleration) but the autopilot is still based on airspeed.
Mil tactics simply don't work like that. If I tell the plane to hold a specific altitude and then also tell it to accelerate, I expect it to hold that altitude and do its best to do a level acceleration unless I specifically disable altitude hold and dive it myself. We build our tactics around the actual performance of the plane, so if a level acceleration doesn't give us the desired results then we modify our tactics instead of building stupidity into the autopilot. Well, the pred and reaper were not designed that way so they're really hard to fly.
That said, they offer a revolutionary addition to global power projection. I think that in the history of warfare UAV development will be ranked among the most important mil tech ever, right up there with nukes, hardened steel, and the rifled gun barrel. The big question in my mind is when will we have the discussion at the national level over what constitutes moral and ethical use of this revolutionary capability. We are in a war, so the question simply can't be discussed without compromising current operations. But it's a big topic that we as a nation, and eventually as a community of world powers, need to have. Flying into the airspace of a nation we are not formally at war with, and using a missile or bomb to kill one individual (or a group, or blowing up a bomb factory, whatever) is simply not something we could do before this. Now, it happens every day. At some point we need to work out some rules based on the same kind of moral and ethical standards that have led to restrictions on other specialized weapons.
