The soviet union shot a U-2 spy plane in 1960 [1]. It didn't start a war then. Iran Air Flight 655 [2] was shot down by the US in 1988, and it didn't start a wa

The soviet union shot a U-2 spy plane in 1960 [1]. It didn't start a war then. Iran Air Flight 655 [2] was shot down by the US in 1988, and it didn't start a war either. Albeit US thought they were targeting a military aircraft, but either way they were not targeting a drone. You can find hundreds of such incidents that didn't result in a war. So I don't think the rules of war are evolving all that much. But I agree that there seem to be a sort of consensus that shooting down drones is less serious than downing manned aircrafts. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_U-2_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_U-2_incident [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655