Troop Transports: The Only Military Air-Craft Type That Wouldn't Work As A UAV?

When we compare military remotely-piloted aircraft to traditional aircraft, we start to wonder the following:  where does the former stop and the latter start in the 21st century and beyond?

UAVs have already made apparent in-roads as tools for aerial surveillance and, more recently, ground support.   But will they also start making in-roads in to the other aerial "provinces" dominated formerly only by manned air-craft?  Will they see use as fighter aircraft, large-payload bombers, troop/cargo carriers, or tankers?

We'd say sure, at least conceivably.  

Obviously with remote fighter aircraft -- if there was really a need for fighter aircraft at all -- we'd deduce that they couldn't be remotely-piloted from half a world away without an approximately 1 second lag at the controls.  

However, if these remote fighter aircraft were controlled by remote pilots located within a significantly closer radius -- not 12,500 miles but say 500 miles -- then the control lag might drop below significance for aerial combat.  

(This control lag issue is already a factor when the USAF employs Predators and Reapers.  Nearby remote pilots in Iraq take care of their take-offs and landings in those cases; only while on the air are these planes controlled by remote pilots in Nevada.) 

How about remote bombers, say something analogous to a B-52, B-1 or B-2?  Sure at least in theory. Same goes for cargo aircraft.  And same for tanker aircraft for aerial refueling (Although the close- quarters of the tankers and aircraft needing fuel would presumably make the remote control-lag issue at at an extreme distance rear its head again) 

Troop transports are the only type of military air-craft where we might have "non-technical" reservations about their potential as a remotely piloted platforms.   We think people flying as passengers want people there flying the plane, not on the ground piloting it at a distance.  

But we may be wrong, you never know.  Astronauts have long survived missions as essentially "spam-in-a-can" -- that is, having no control of the vehicle they are in.  So, we may overestimate the negative reaction that people or soliders potentially flying as passengers in UAVs may have.