Agreed that it's a testing ground - for both sides.

>>And it’s surely not practicable to put any serious armour protection on a drone so they are highly susceptible to laser attack.

I expect we'll start to see drones with more reflective surface and possibly some ablative tile surfaces. They're very much subsonic, so it's just a matter of making sure it can generate lift. Lift primarily comes from the top sides of the wings (look at where hard points are), and I don't see how laser weapons could hit those surfaces.