The term drone is popularly used to reference an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). There is no human pilot in the cockpit of a drone. Instead, either a team or an individual human operator controls the drone from a remote location. Although some drones are available for civilian use, the technology is most commonly associated with police and military use.

Military drones generally perform intelligence-gathering missions and combat operations. A single military drone is actually part of a larger unmanned aerial system. For example, a US military Predator system consists of four drones, a ground control station and operation and maintenance personnel. A team of three individuals, including a pilot, a sensor and weapons operator and a mission coordinator, controls a single drone. With the Reaper drone, there may be two pilots in separate locations who share flying duties during long-duration missions.

In the US military, drones are most frequently used for intelligence-gathering missions. Forces on the ground may request that operators send in a drone to monitor and identify targets or scan the battlefield for hidden dangers. The Predator drone can operate under the control of a human pilot or can fly autonomously along a programmed path. The Reaper is also capable of this type of flight. Other reconnaissance drones, like the RQ-11 Raven, require a human soldier to control the drone and conduct surveillance.

Drones are also capable of conducting combat operations. The Predator can carry up to a 450-pound payload, most commonly two Hellfire missiles. The much larger Reaper, however, can support 3,750 pounds of missiles, laser-guided bombs or other munitions. Though military officials contend that human operators will always determine whether to fire the weapons, drones in use by the US and British military are becoming increasingly autonomous. In July 2013, a US Navy X-47B drone managed to land on an aircraft carrier without human assistance.