"True, they were little better that a closed circuit camera on a model airplane,"
- You are right. These short range "look over the next hill" craft are little more than line of sight radio controlled camera carriers. However, when you launch a drone over the horizon where the only ground reference for an on board camera is miles and miles of featureless ocean, you need a sophisticated GPS based guidance system.
I agree that we do seem to "need" same. However, it is entirely feasible to fly a drone over a ship at sea without - in a variety of ways. Radio beacon, trailing a ship(s), or even being hand-launched from one, et cetera. Never assume technology is limited to what we have done with it (or how). Especially in the hands of tyros.