40%-60% of Naval aviation may soon become unmanned, according to this Popular Science article.

40%-60% of Naval aviation may soon become unmanned, according to this Popular Science article.

The success of the Navy's Stingray tanker drone seems to have sped up development and deployment.

https://www.popsci.com/technology/navy-carriers-robot-planes/

Personal Side note: 

A few friends know that I was a Navy Midshipman at UC Berkeley, intending to become a Navy Pilot with expertise in Computers. During these years, the officers and the students often talked about future development, including the possibility of entirely computer-controlled planes. The advantages were staggering. Most aircraft performance is limited by the endurance of the Pilot, both in G-factors in turns and length of time in the plane. Removing the cockpit, with its life support, visual avionics, ejector seat, and other human-required equipment would radically change the aircraft's weight. We could even bring back single jet planes for some missions since the Pilot's life is no longer an issue  (the duel-engined plane is the policy when flying over water). While we agreed there were significant advantages, we thought that an AI pilot would be significantly limiting in a combat environment. In a perfect mission, they might work great, but when the mission goes sideways, the AI would have difficulty adapting. Adapting is one of the most human abilities.

We completely missed the idea of remotely controlled drones being possible in combat scenarios. The concept of the perfect radio remote control being worldwide, unjammable, and not being detectable by the enemy was outside our imaginations. Boy, did we miss the boat on that one.

Being young midshipmen, we possibly also missed the idea of remote drones being used for non-combat missions. Yeah, we were all going into fighters. In reality, drones are perfect for supply delivery, refueling, surveyance, and more.