Ok, so while playing around with drone stuff (as I sometimes do) I came up with this little beauty. Have your rigger stick it in the trunk of the car or back of the van, and deploy it before you start your run. It's sensor systems should let you have a powerful eye-in-the-sky, and if need be, a potent sniper cover option that can easily reposition itself for a shot, or flee should it be picked out of the distant sky line and targeted back. It's primary defense is distance. It can function at long or extreme range, where it's unlikely to be noticed or considered a threat.

The drone has some decent autonomous capabilities, but could really shine when being controlled by a skilled rigger.

Sensor Tests:
Pilot 3 + Clearsight 6 - Extreme Range 3 (downgraded from 6 by vision mag) + 3 Vision Enhancement [Limit Sensor 5] = Dicepool 9

Shooting
Burst Fire: Pilot 3 + Targeting (EBR) 6 - Extreme Range 3 (downgraded from 6 by vision mag) [Limit Accuracy 6] - = Dicepool 6 with the target likely unaware and taking a -2 for Burst Fire even if they know they are under attack.

Admittedly, there is some question as to weather or not Sniper Rifles can fit in a standard weapons mount. The EBR is described as being similar to an Assault Rifle, but your GM's millage may vary.

While potentially game breakingly deadly, just remember the golden rule:

Whatever the players can do, the GM can do too.

The GM can do MORE - He has an unlimited Budget.

Aka TPK

But along those lines, I know sniper drones have been talked about for ages, but I'm curious of the implications of them

War zones: no need for snipers or much in the way if offensive ground troops when you have dedicated sniper drones.
Syndacites: wipe out the whole other side from a distance
General wet work: why spend $XXK on a wet work team when you need a drone

Would they almost work out to a nuclear weapon style situation with everyone having them but no one using them in fear of reprisals from their foes?

EdIt: Though I could see the whole hovering and flying thing kinda ruin the aim on them for sniper rifle work tbh.

Sniper drones have strengths and weaknesses. Back in the day my GM had a thing for stormclouds with cham coating and a sniper rifle mount, for extra deadly goodness.

As I see it the primary weakness of sniper drones is that when firing on its own it has a low dicepool compared to a metahuman sniper and depending on the programming might be less than ideal with target prioritization. Since snipers also tend to have a good vantage to watch the tide of battle and keep the group informed a drone acting on its own is inferior. Add a rigger to the mix and you have a whole different beast however.

See, a Rigger is generally going to have maxed out gunnery specializing in remote, get a ton of bonuses from 'ware and hot SIM, and have more sensors on tap than a human sniper. Way back in 4th the balancing factor was that you were relying on the drone's response rather than a stat of your own, which was expensive and easily outmatched by a dedicated marksman. Now that most remote skills use your maxed out logic, a decent rigger has few weaknesses.

Few, but not none. Because you're going to have to be outputting a vast amount of data over the air to rig a drone even the lowest end decker makes hiding both your location and that of your drone impossible. Add to that the fragility of drones in 5th and the fact that most foes consider both snipers and riggers to be priority targets and the fact that a human marksman can be about as good without giving his position away or risking being decked, and you begin to see why using sniper drones for assassination is not necessarily better than using a pro hitman.