The direction is not to make bigger and higher performance UAVs that can carry lots of weapons: It is to make smaller and slower UAVs that can patrol an area for days on end before refueling. These are not weapons so much as intelligence gathering platforms. Current developments include things like a UAV with a six foot wingspan equipped with visible and infrared cameras linked to a GPS system (and NO weapons at all). Tiny planes like this are so easy to fly that you can recruit teenagers with video game or model airplane experience and teach them the basics in a few weeks! With this tiny size, the UAV is essentially invisible to anyone without sophisticated radio-locating equipment.
With a very modest investment per UAV and 4-6 of these "pilots" to work shifts around the clock, you can keep a human eye on everything going on in an area covering several square miles. You can replicate this for any number of locations, since the costs are so low. Eventually the US Armed Forces and CIA will probably have thousands of these tiny UAVs they can field anywhere in the world on a few weeks notice.
BTW: Unmentioned in this article is the fact that most of the pilots who run the Air Force hate UAVs!
