Without a human on board, it could quadruple its range, hold twice as much ammunition, and be five times more difficult to shoot down.
Those are called “drones”.
Bizarre form of troop transport? I.E. Ride “the hover-thing” to the mission insertion point? The army seemed pretty hell-bent a couple years ago about making Iron Man a reality... though personally, this is bringing back unpleasant memories of Willem Defoe as Green Goblin in Spider Man.