Joint Doctrine Note 2/11, The UK Approach to Unmanned Aircraft Systems, dated 30 March 2011 raises some interesting legal and ethical issues.
For instance:
Is the Reaper operator walking the streets of his home town after a shift a legitimate target as a combatant? Would an attack by an enemy sympathiser or agent be an act of war under international law or murder under the statutes of the home state? Does a person who has the right to kill as a combatant while in the safety of a control cabin thousands of miles away cease to be a combatant that evening on his way home?
Bob C