Ozy and BEagle, please do not be too hard on the lad, for he see's the golden future. Unfortunately, like a lot of the ones before him over the years, they imagine it is but one short step from in theater to in the real world.
When the powers that be saw we could do something, and they wanted more, they just couldn't get their minds around the fact that capabilty cost is not linear, it's expotential ++.
When this topic arises, as it always does, I am reminded of one day back in the late 1980's. I had never before seen a "Telex", haven't since. But on this light pink piece of hand delivered paper was a pricing/delivery request for an RPV, capable of oth, awacs, realtime video/linescan, unearthly endurance, on and on. The ob generating capabilty to drive all the gubbins would require a 747 at least. But the last sentence really brought home the lack of understanding of the true capabilities: "Air, sea and soil sampling".
Now, how do you top that. Someone out there, at that time, thought it perfectly feasable for an RPV! I laughed long and hard and still, like now, smirk at the thought.
I think the folks like LJ don't really take into account the major leap in true airworthiness required to do what they propose, along with the costs involved to reach and then operate at that level. There is a cost point that I believe the unmanned folks will exceed in their endeavour, and that's the manned one.
Economics will be the deciding factor, and bandwidth.
Can I have change for a fiver?