Armchair engineer: These things should explode if anyone else gets their hands on it!
Real Engineer: Ok it costs 4 time as much now.
Armchair Engineer: What? Why!!
Real Engineer: We have to train all of our test engineers in bomb disposal and we have to build into the cost of development the five or six that are likely to blow up in the datalink debugging and control station testing.
Armchair Engineer: Oh… but can’t you make it only blow up if someone bad has it?
Real Engineer: Well we have not invented a ‘someone bad’ detector yet. We thought about using an IFF remote system but no one wants to go near it. If that part is faulty it will blow up on the runway. If you want to let us pay our technicians ten times their normal rate we can put that feature in
Armchair Engineer: Oh, maybe not. Well what about crashing itself if anything goes wrong.
Real Engineer: Do you have any idea how much ‘anything’ goes wrong during normal testing?
Armchair Engineer: Well don’t put that feature in until AFTER testing. Duh!
Real Engineer: Right… Well if you don’t want us to test that feature that is fine. Ok, we need ten million more in insurance money in case one decides to hit school later during training. I assume you don’t mind if it crashed into troops when it is in the field.
Armchair Engineer: Oh wait. No that is bad don’t do that.
Real Engineer: Ok how about we make it auto land if it gets low on fuel or loses navigation capability or is damaged.
Armchair Engineer: What? When war robots get damaged they are suppose to go crazy and kill people. Everyone one knows that!
Real Engineer: Go watch some more scifi and leave the engineering up to the professionals.
Pyrotechnic fasteners (aka “explosive bolts”) are used to ensure separation between rocket stages. Probably all booster stages are equipped with explosive charges so that the boosters can be destroyed if they go out of control on launch. Scuttle charges have been used widely on subs and ships. Gas generators are close cousins of pyrotechnic fasteners and are used to power turbopumps, inflate balloons, eject parachutes, and inflate automobile airbags. You are sitting in front of a pyro charge every time you drive your car.
People have been trained to safely work with all these devices.
“Armchair Engineer”
Rockets and missles have self-destruct systems in case they go out of control. And, come to think of it, every time a fighter aircraft lands with a live AIM-120 AAMRAM or a Sidewinder, they are landing with a live “self-destruct” charge in the missile, right? You can handle the drone like you handle a missile.
A small warhead could have been installed during these type of high risk missions and removed for CONUS flights. Would this require more logisitics and training — yes, it would have. However, it could have safeguarded US technology.