"You don't use Tomahawks against small moving targets, only fixed buildings, or possibly ships," said Steve Zaloga, a missile expert for Teal Group, a Virginia-based military and aviation analysis firm. "I think more broadly, the Tomahawk has typically been used where you don't want to lose any aircraft, so you'd send it into areas with enemy air defense or that is deep behind enemy lines."

"It requires an extensive crew, a dozen men, and they all have to be highly trained," said Steve Zaloga, a senior analyst at Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia, and an expert in Russian military technology. "Some of the tasks are less complicated, like more administrative tasks, but difficult training is required either way."

According to Zaloga, it's not as if the pro-separatists just found the launcher and pointed it at the aircraft. First of all, operating the launcher typically requires two or three other other radar vehicles and a supporting command system.

"All of the vehicles have to interact together at the same time, which is why the U.S. government is suspicious about who was helping them use the equipment," Zaloga said.

he powerful Cold War-era Buk missile system was built to protect Soviet army units from attacking aircraft during wartime. Unlike fixed-weapons used for national air defense, a Buk system in the field being used by separatist rebels likely wouldn't have information from air-traffic control centers, said Steve Zaloga, a senior analyst for the Teal Group Corp. in Virginia.

"The Buk system is not designed for peacetime use where it interacts with air traffic control," Zaloga said. "They would have seen a radar blip at 33,000 feet, but that's all they would have seen."

These proposed sales, particularly the long-range SLAM-ERs, raised eyebrows in the defense community. If these sales are approved by Congress, it would mark the first time SLAM-ER has been sold to the Gulf region. Analysts point to the rise of Iran, a joint enemy to the US, Israel and countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council, as a key driver that could be changing the long-held policy. “Seeing these [deals] pop up strongly suggests to me there has been a policy change somewhere,” said Steve Zaloga, an analyst with the Virginia-based Teal Group. “Somebody had made a decision that these will be openly offered to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.”

Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, called the FAA's announcement a good first step. "It's a smart start to this to use the test phase to also test what works best to protect privacy," he said. The U.S. still needs to regulate drone use by law enforcement, Calabrese said. The global market for drones will grow to $11.4 billion in 2022 from $6.6 billion this year, according to Teal Group Corp. of Fairfax, Virginia, which analyzes the industry. Major drone makers include Northrop Grumman Corp., General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., and Aerovironment Inc., which make most sales to the U.S. military, said Steve Zaloga, a Teal Group analyst.