I often wonder if drones even need to look like they do or if there is a more efficient design that we don't use simply because "things that fly look like this" where "this" includes a place for a cockpit.
The basic design of wings sticking out from a pointy cylinder isn't going to change, because of aerodynamics.
But in the case of the Predator drone, for example, it didn't reduce the volume of the "cockpit" -- it expanded it into a big bulge to fit the satellite antenna and all of the sensors.
Such drones will not last long on the battlefield. The countermeasures for MITM drones is going to be brutal in the next 5 years after what we've seen in Ukraine. Russia has already been doing pretty well using ECM against Ukraine's drones. However, HIMARS has been employed effectively against jamming devices as well.
Low cost autonomous hunter killers as area denial munitions is going to be something else though. Once we no longer require man-in-the-middle these drones will be horrifying. You will be able to just say "Kill anything with these characteristics in this area at this time." Then leave the area and wait for the mayhem to begin. Think land mines that place themselves miles away and then get up out of their hole and then chase down whoever gets near enough.
That's already happened, look at how many have a pusher prop configuration to balance out all the electronics and sensor equipment going where the cockpit used to be.
The basic design of wings sticking out from a pointy cylinder isn't going to change, because of aerodynamics.
But in the case of the Predator drone, for example, it didn't reduce the volume of the "cockpit" -- it expanded it into a big bulge to fit the satellite antenna and all of the sensors.