For Americans watching at home, drones defined the War in Afghanistan under Obama's tenure. Variously depicted as cartoonishly inept or maliciously evil robots, the spectre of armed unmanned aerial vehicles animated heated campus discourse about what, exactly, America was doing overseas.

Since the early 2010s, military drones have faded from the minds of much of the public. In that time, other nations like Iraq and Nigeria and Pakistan have joined America as wielders of armed remotely piloted aircraft. And even more nations have adopted unarmed drones as flying cameras to guide their military. The latest country to join that list is none other than Afghanistan.

A U.S. military official announced yesterday that Afghanistan is expected to field its own drones starting in March. Rather than the menacing armed Reapers or the plane-sized missile-carrying Predators, Afghanistan's army will fly the modest ScanEagle. At just 5 feet long and with a 10-foot wingspan, these hardy drones are launched not from runways but from truck-mounted catapults.