Honestly, those drones better be tough as **** if this movie wants a good third act (Iron Man had a truly bad third act that makes the movie less enjoyable on repeat viewings).
Considering that Whiplash is the typical evil villain role gladiator entering the arena seeking revenge with a crudely practical harness and whips, Justin Hammer is the intellectual equal villian, Black Widow is the anti-hero, and War Machine is the mirror armored friend turned foe by only plot convenience to team-up again for marketing purposes, the drones need to be the muscle the inhuman heavies mass-marketed cheaply by the military-industrial complex.
They need to have hard to piece armor that even when made into swiss cheese with bullet holes they still attack relentlessly, they don't have a pilot's brains and reaction time but they have pure brawn and no human weaknesses. It should take a lot of teamwork for the iron men to win in the fight.
It would make a good contrast, that the man makes the suit and not the power-source by itself. Whiplash does that too but as a stripped down version of Iron Man not his opposite.
And tbh, I thought the cackling Iron Monger sham in the first movie just sucked, they have to make the villian so over the top that he makes the whole suited pilot idea ridiculous too. I rather see War Machine be the armored character and not a cackling Mickey Rourke in a cgi power suit.