Top Ten Facts About Drones

A drone primer in the current issue of Foreign Policy, 10 Things You Don't Know About Drones by Micah Zeniko - -

1. The first armed drones were created to get Osama bin Laden.
2. So far, drones lend to crash.  The ledger shows 79 drones accidents costing at least $1 million each. 
3. Drones are coming to America.  As of October 2011, the FAA has issued 285 active certificates for 85 users, covering 82 drone types.
4. The scope of U.S. military drone missions is expanding.  The five-pound pack back drone is standard issue equipment .
5. The civilian uses have not been as fast.  But this is changing, Boeing engineers have joined forces with MIT students to build an iPhone app that can control a drone from up to 3,000 miles away.  The words MIT and iPhone have a tendency to speed up commercial applications.
6. Most military drones don't bomb.  They collect information - - intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
7. Attack drones require more boots on the ground.  Some 168 people are required to keep your basic Predator in the sky.
8. Drones are becoming a lethal weapon of choice, but nobody's in charge.
9. Other countries are catching up to the United States.
10. The drone future is already here.  We have 7,500 drones.  The bottom line in the era of defence budget cuts - - drones will become cheaper, smaller, faster, stealthier, more lethal, and more autonomous.  We also have a well trained generation of 13-year olds ready to take the joy stick.

Excellent TED video on what the drone future is going to look like: