The effective range of a Barrett M82 (50 Caliber rifle) is approximately 6,000 feet, and that's not shooting straight up.
Point blank (which, despite the common vernacular meaning 'really close', actually means 'the range of the bullet before you have to adjust for elevation') is 1500 feet, past that, gravity begins taking over.
TL;DR, the range of a Predator drone is definitely greater than the naked eye's visibility range, and even with optics, target acquisition is nearly impossible, and even if it weren't, unless it's flying very low relative to its ceiling, you can't hit it anyway.
25000 feet = 7620m, which approximates to 7.6 km ;)
6000 feet ~= 1800m
1500 feet ~= 450m
What you'd like to do is put a drone in the air where you can lase 5 people, and have it precision assassinate them. Then have it loiter and wait till their colleagues show up, who, by observing their actions, you can assassinate them to.
The size of a bullet means you'd have a lot of operational time would be very long - you could carry hundreds of rounds on a drone, that would still be just as capable of disabling vehicles or hitting passengers.
Some things never change...
spotter: acquire the target.
sniper: rodger. target acquired.
spotter: laser paint the target.
sniper: what color?
spotter: we should paint it blue according to IEEE 802.11eeek
sniper: But we're on the *RED* team! Not the blue team! dummy!
spotter: Don't call me a dummy. I read the IEEE spec. Did you?
sniper: We should paint it RED! according to IETF RFC-31337
spotter: No! No! No! 802.11eek clearly says blue!
sniper: I'M CERTAIIN IT SHOULD BE RED!!!111``
spotter: calm down or you'll miss (again, haha) and just use blue.
sniper: you started it with the "No!No!No!" crap. I want red.
spotter: you're too frustrated to type "certain" correctly. blue.
sniper: but I really wanted red, impending doom an all that.
spotter: with blue you'll get purple if you hit the damn target!
sniper: Oops! too late. target lost. he hid behind that bikeshed.
(sigh) Where is PHK when we need him?All sorts of known strategies applicable to e.g Hellfires come to mind (sorry for the dubious reference and descriptions, I recently unearthed old Comanche 3 and Longbow games): shoot timed salvos and light up targets in sequence, shoot blind and hidden then pop up and light up at the last second...
Wind has a larger effect that is evident even at shorter ranges. Bullets are fast, but during their time of flight they are blown around by the wind just like any other object passing through the air.
I could imagine some scenarios where indirect fire, perhaps coordinated with a drone that can light up the target with the laser, could be useful.