That's because we don't have "drones" in the military any more.

A "drone" was an aircraft launched with a pre-programmed route/task. It was not controlled by a person (pilot) except for rarely while within line of sight and in the case of "targeting drones."

Now we have full up, professionally trained pilots (most of which flew manned military aircraft for 100s, sometimes 1000s of hours) at a set of controls that can fly these Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA), talk on the radio and give inputs to the controls...just like any other airplane in the sky.

We also have RPAs that can successfully fly on international flight plans to various places around the world from the U.S. and from military bases staged in various places over seas.

Oh well..."drones" will continue to be used by the media because the word is inherently derogatory and makes unmanned aircraft seem dangerous and dumb. So be it...