The military uses drones to support troops on the ground. The CIA maintains a covert drone program to find and target individuals. The government claims drones have helped to eliminate up to 70 percent of Al-Qaeda's top leadership. They've been so effective, the Air Force predicts nearly a third of its attack and fighter planes will be drones within a decade. Planes can fly longer and they can pull more Gs. They can be more precise when they bomb, if a human is not in the cockpit. We're entering a new era, when the supremacy of even the most advanced planes is being challenged as engineers take the pilot out of the cockpit. Holloman Air Force Base in southern New Mexico is the largest Air Force training base for operators of remotely piloted aircraft. My name is Chad. I'm a captain in the United States Air Force. For security reasons, we've been asked to cover our last names to prevent us from potentially becoming a target of any kind. Captain Chad has flown remotely piloted aircraft in combat for three years and now teaches pilots to fly the world's most famous killer drone. It's known as the MQ-1 - or more common, the Predator. The Predator has changed warfare, but it's just a hint of what's to come. Where we are in terms of unmanned aerial vehicles is about the same place we were with biplanes right after World War I. We are at the very, very early stages of realizing what the potential of unmanned aerial vehicles are. Unlike complex fighter planes that are engineered for speed and agility, the Predator is built for endurance. So it needs to be light and efficient. It's the weight of a pickup truck or so, about 2,000 pounds and it's balance-free evenly on the wheels. And with one hand here, I can lift it up and - and set it back down. The propeller-driven Predator cruises at only 84 miles per hour and its four-cylinder engine burns about 300 times less fuel than a fighter jet. I can't say exactly how long it can stay up, but it is possible to stay up over 24 hours. A typical fighter plane can only fly for about two hours without refueling. And short, angled wings keep it fast and maneuverable. But the Predator hovers five miles up, often in uncontested airspace and its long wings maximize lift. As you can see, it got some flex to it. With no pilot to protect, a remotely-piloted aircraft is much lighter and simpler than a manned plane. On a fighter, the pilot's support equipment and ejection system alone way as much as a Predator, which in place of a cockpit, has a satellite control system. It's essentially the brains of the aircraft that gives us the ability to communicate, control, keep link with the aircraft and navigate it. The Predator sensor ball carries daylight and infrared cameras. We can easily make out people from five-six miles away. The sensor ball also guides the Predator's two Hellfire missiles. From right here, we fire the laser and the laser spot hits the ground and then once we fired the missile, this is the seeker. So this seeker will find that laser spot on the ground and travel to that spot, giving us a very precise capability of employing weapons. When conducting missions, remote pilots work out of small trailers on the ground. They control the Predator by satellite. This link is what makes it possible to take the human out of the cockpit and fly from virtually anywhere on the planet. It's tight, about the size of a normal shipping container and a shift that could be anywhere from two or three hours up to eight or more hours, depending on the situation. From trailers like this, pilots of the Predator and its larger cousin, the Reaper, have killed thousands of individuals since 2001. In this clip from Iraq, a Predator pilot sees two insurgents firing mortars towards a coalition air base. He tracks them and finally shoots. The pilot's role is to support troops on the ground and go after threats, while trying to minimize civilian casualties. With such high stakes, pilots like Chad need ongoing training. Today he'll be flying the Reaper in an exercise 50 miles away in the New Mexico desert. All right. Greg, you're going to be my HVI. I have - Shadow on station is going to be watching you. You're gonna be on... A group of former soldiers working for a company called Rally Point will run an exercise in which Chad will hunt down insurgents in a mock village. We'll strike you there, once you - you die, stay there, drive... Two will play insurgents and one will be a soldier on the ground communicating with Chad. I have to take off now, so we're gonna push the throttle up. And there - we're up in the air. The training mission offers a rare glimpse into the mechanics of how the US uses drones to support troops and prosecute its war on terror. The goal is to make it as realistic as possible so pilots can avoid mistakes when in battle. They should be checking in here probably in the next - oh, 20 minutes or so. It's going to be a MQ-9 Reaper. If there are 25,000 feet, which they generally work, we're not going to be able see them at all. It takes about half an hour to reach the mock village. Drones like the Reaper can fly on their own using autopilot and preset GPS locations, but the Air Force still keeps human hands on the controls at all times. People have this concept of either it's a manned plane and the pilot's doing everything or it's an unmanned plane and it's something out of The Terminator movies. The reality is, it's in the middle right now for both the manned and the unmanned planes. Our mind tries to put it in terms of robot or human, but the reality is a mix. As Chad pilots the Reaper, his sensor operator, Jay, controls the cameras and lasers. On the ground, the fake insurgents enter the village, as the Reaper hovers miles above. Bones 3-4, Rally 2-0 say status. Rally from Bones 3-4, we... Chad gets direction from the soldier whose handheld receiver and computer allow him to see what Chad sees. Chad's call sign is Bones. The soldier goes by Rally. And Rally, Bones. Ah, we have two attacks moving around inside the northwest corner of the campout. Bones 3-4 from Rally 2-0. Continue to shadow. The soldier directs Chad and Jay to follow an HVI, or high value individual, dressed in black. Rally from Bones 3-4, looks like the one individual wearing black is now getting on the motorcycle and departing the group. Depending on the situation, the decision to kill comes from an intelligence officer who could be anywhere - a battle commander on the ground or sometimes, the pilot. Bones 3-4 from Rally 2-0, looks like that personnel is stopping. Bones 3-4, that's eight … we got up here. All right. What I'd like to do is go ahead and prosecute nine line Bravo 1. Copy. Master Arm.
