holloman air force base in southern new mexico is the largest air force training base for operators of remotely piloted aircraft. chad: my name is chad, and i'm a captain in the united states air force. for security reasons we've been asked to cover our last names to prevent us from potentially becoming a target of any kind. narrator: captain chad has flown remotely piloted aircraft in combat for three years and now teaches pilots to fly the world's most famous killer drone. it's known as the mq1, or more commonly, the predator. the predator has changed warfare, but it's just a hint of what's to come. deptula: where we are in terms of unmanned aerial vehicles is about the same place we were with biplanes right after world war i. we are at the very very early stages of realizing what the potential of unmanned aerial vehicles are. narrator: unlike complex fighter planes that are engineered for speed and agility, the predator is built for endurance, so it needs to be light and efficient. chad: it's the weight of a pick-up truck or so, about 2,000 pounds. and it's balanced pretty evenly on