man: all right, greg, you're going to be my hvi. i have... shadow 1 station is going to be watching you. narrator: a group of former soldiers working for a company called rally point will run an exercise in which chad will hunt down insurgents in a mock village. we'll strike you there and once you die stay there, drive... narrator: two will play insurgents and one will be a soldier on the ground communicating with chad. chad: have to take off now, so we are going to push the throttle up. and there, we're up in the air. narrator: the training mission offers a rare glimpse into the mechanics of how the u.s. uses drones to support troops and prosecute its war on terror. the goal is to make it as realistic as possible so pilots can avoid mistakes when in battle. they should be checking in here probably in the next 20 minutes ore so. it's going to be an mq-9 a reaper. if they're at 25,000 feet, which they generally work, we're not going to be able to see them at all. narrator: it takes about half an hour to reach the mock village. drones like the

. >> reporter: the soldier directs chad and jay to follow an hvi, or high-value individual, dressed in black. >> looks like the one individual wearing black is now getting on the motorcycle and departing the group. >> reporter: depending on the situation, the decision to kill comes from an intelligence officer who could be anywhere, a battle commander on the ground, or sometimes the pilot. >> brown: since the obama administration came to power four years ago, the united states has vastly increased the number of drone strikes against suspected terrorists just today, reuters reported that six suspected al qaeda militants were killed in yemen. but their use has been highly controversial, on a number of levels and we move to that debate now, with seth jones, who worked for the commander of u.s. special forces in afghanistan from 2009 to 2011 and is now a senior political scientist at the rand corporation. and chris anders, senior legislative council at the american civil liberties union. the a.c.l.u. has filed law-suits against the government challenging the legal basis for the drone progr