[Northern Yankee]

Good Morning sir!

Our boys do just fine in manned choppers. We don't unmanned copters out there.

Drones are great for recon, and test flights, but I feel better when we've got a pilot at the controls.

Flew with some outstanding chopper pilots when I was in the Air Force. Don't want to put these boys out of business.

And how in the hell did Hellary get on this committee? Her contempt for the military is well known.

Semper fi!

[demosthenes the elder]

Well the Predator+Hellfire combo seems to be a rather nifty trick.
Considering what a bitch choppers are to fly, how much fuel they guzzle per linear mile, how inherently unstable they are, how much flying one is done by "feel" (reaction to minute feedback from the cyclic and collective and pedals, the vibration of the airframe, inner-ear inertial reaction to pitch, sway, yaw that cannot be reproduced via simulator, etc...), how much maintenance is required per flight-hour as compared to a fixed-wing aircraft, how mechanically complex they are, and how expensive (ETC...)
I just don't believe a teleoperated robochopper is a viable idea.
I think this is just pork, and an attempt to pin some "hitek pro military" buttons to her lapel.