On November 4, 2002, an MQ-1B Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) took out an al-Qaeda SUV with an AGM-114 Hellfire air attack missile 100 miles east of the Yemeni capital of San'a. This marked a turning point in military history. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) had taken the offensive, and were now performing as unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs).

But this attack was not the first use of a UAV in combat. The idea and technology of unmanned aircraft began with vehicles such as the Kettering Bug of World War I, and evolved through the first-generation cruise missiles during World War II and the decade following.

Attack of the Drones: A History of Unmanned Aerial Combat chronicles the evolution of unmanned, remotely piloted reconnaissance aircraft to their modern use in offensive operations.