Gentlemen, the "operator issues" are but 1%. The major, and I do stress major, problem is the "lost link syndrome". Everybody will tell you, "We don't have that problem, ours does: insert climb to regain signal, recip heading, fly to known waypoint, et. etc. etc. Problem is they don't at least 50% of the time. If you want examples go look at the various "museums" with bits of, and one or two complete predators and others. Loss rates are published, and some not. I know of 4 af recovery team efforts just this year in the sw US, all lost link. Border patrol had an "incident" with it's bird. The ones operating out of George had to have manned aircraft following them to and from their ops area
for that very reason. They are now allowing them to fly alone, trying to certify them for ops in controlled airspace.
I say again, in my humble experience in this field (since 1985, up at DRES) these systems in their current form are not ready for integration into controlled airspace. All you are doing is pushing the envelope for pushings sake. Mark my words, there will be a manned unmanned incident/accident in the not too distant future.
Hopefully it will not result in death or dismemberment. But what it will do is push back integration 10 years at least, and possibly never.
The only uav/rpv/whatever that I feel is appropriate in controlled airspace is global hawk, and that system is so far ahead in capabilities and redundency, it makes the rest look like rc aircraft, but so is the cost. In my day, the predators capabilities cost $50k, and that was using a ferranti missile gyro at $11k, pre gps days. El cheapo was using a humphries gyro at $3k, but while spinning up you could hear it chinging
and changing 50 yards away. And yes, we had the same lost link issues back then too.
Just my tuppence worth.