The U.S. Air Force has long envisioned a strategic role for remotely piloted and autonomous aircraft. For the first time in history, the Presidents budget proposed a larger investment in RPAs than manned aircraft. A seemingly insatiable appetite for RPAs has led to an Air Force manning bottleneck. This is exacerbated by a lack of common ground stations, unsatisfactory integration with civilian and international airspace, and vulnerabilities in communications and command and control links. General David Petraeus sees this need as a direct way to support a key center of gravity: “We will not win based on the number of Taliban we kill””]
Source: https://publicintelligence.net/usaf-drones-in-irregular-warfare/