You don't have a pilot stranded 2,000 miles from the middle of nowhere, right? This is what happens if an aircraft is flying on the northern patrol and it goes down. Even if you know exactly where the guy is, just the rescue bit is not going to happen. It's just not going to happen in time, right? Whereas if you lose one of these unmanned vehicles, first of all, they're not very expensive. Second, there's nobody on board. That's the other major consideration.
On December 2nd, 2014. See this statement in context.