UAVs were a part of a bigger shift in the way we conduct war. I don't know what the term is this year, but infocentric warfare was a concept I used to laugh at. I envisioned some flag officer sitting in a room of big screen monitors micromanaging the battlespace. It may have started that way, but that same concept now gives troops on the ground and aircrew in the air a better view of the battlespace.
Now I realize that infocentric warfare is the key to our success. Never in history of mankind has any nation fielded a more lethal military force. Sharing info up, and more importantly, down the chain allows us to destroy more targets, with less weapons, in less time with less risk.