Drones play a major role in the fictional civil war in Drone Child: A Novel of War, Family, and Survival. They also show up in real life.

As reported by Africa Insider and other outlets, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is spending $800 million on drones to bomb Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. Supervised by a French Foreign Legion veteran, Romanian mercenaries will fly about 10 Chinese-made drones, known as the CASC Rainbow CH-4. They can bomb and fire missiles at ground targets from more than...