New Delhi, July 24 - Every morning Major Morgan Andrews of the US Army leaves his suburban Las Vegas home and finds himself deep in battle, killing insurgents on the other side of the world, within half an hour.

Major Andrews is one of the skilled 'pilots' who are fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan without leaving their base in the Nevada desert. He mans a drone -- a precision unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) -- with the help of a mouse, a keyboard, a zoom lens with cross-hairs and a computer panel to blow up hostile targets.

'The wars of the future are changing -- and in a way becoming safer for those fighting it. We are seeing a revolutionary change in the nature of weapons brought about by remote controlled devices which not only save the fighters' lives but are also more precise,' CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson, whose has made a documentary on the life of an American drone pilot, told IANS on phone from London.

According to Robertson, who gained access to a high-security US air base to film Major Andrew and his crew at work, drones are becoming central to the war against insurgents in Afghanistan, Iraq and in remote rebel bastions of Pakistan.

'The demand for drones is increasing in the US Army because of the weapons they can carry, the alacrity and speed with which they can respond to threat on the ground, precision strikes and their ability to project power without making those piloting them vulnerable.