You are not going to improve the quality or effectiveness of searches by using UAVs
How can you claim that without ever trying it? What none of the old guard have admitted is how tired (and bored) human eyes and brains get during a search, especially over large tracts of water. The fatigue on the IR operator in particular is well documented - and while the IR operator is looking at the screen, that's only three sets of eyes out of the window. A drone doesn't suffer in the same way, but it has a variety of limitations of its own. It's sad but entirely predictable that this is being seen in terms of black and white (pun intended) - can we really not have a slightly more nuanced view which accepts that the two assets both have strengths and weaknesses, and in some situations might even complement each other quite nicely?