there may be a conception that our drone pilots are as "gung ho" as it seems some American operators have been.
If I may, Smudger, let me explain a little bit about Rules of Engagement (ROE), a Targetting Board and a Kill Chain. In almost all cases, there is a set of ROE that a crew of an aircraft (be it manned or unmanned) will work to - normally, the only time a crew can be "gung ho" is when lives are in danger and they get a chance to go weapons free on their own initiative. In fact, in the Reaper/Predator case they are barely ever making decisions on their own as 1-4 Stars will be watching their feed in their Ops Rooms around the world and calling for shots. If it's a tricky shot with potential for collateral casualties then a Targetting Board will sit and the crew will be told what to do. The Kill Chain for an unmanned aircraft is far bigger than that for a traditional manned aircraft because of the Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) feed from the unmanned aircraft - thus, there are probably a lot of "gung ho" individuals telling your so-called "drone pilots" to hit the target on everyone's screens!
It may not surprise you that UK ROE is more restrictive than US ROE, but either way, that ROE is not set by pilots flying the aircraft - and yes
they do fly the aircraft (think of it as fly by wire - it's just that the wire is 4,000 miles long!).
LJ