A remote-operated aircraft flown into a target while the operator watches not only isn’t something new, but it’s already been done in volume and found wanting.  An apparent attempt to assassinate the President of Venezuela by such means last month didn’t work.

venezuelan_assassination

Some guy scraped up after an attempted murder-by-drone.

A drone that can fly at 200mph for three kilometers, operated over an ECM-hardened control link, and delivering a 5+ lb armor-piercing explosive warhead has existed for ovr fifty years now.  The AT-3 Sagger came, made its impact, and we all moved on.  Visually flying your remote-controlled aircraft into a target is called Manual Command Line of Sight, and it’s not used for anything important (more discussion here).  Small autonomous systems will change the battlefield, but flying a much smaller payload onto a target over a less secure control channel than primitive missiles is not going to be how it happens.  Hit probability and kill probability are low, with high vulnerability to electronic countermeasures.  Taping a grenade to your kid’s toy helicopter won’t going to give you the edge you need to win on tomorrow’s battlefield.  The characteristics of such a line-of-sight weapon compare poorly to the currently dominant line of sight personal weapon, the rifle.

Anyway, what will change?  The important factors are availability & control.