There is a pre-Iron Man 2-Comic, tht explains that good. there it is said that tony calibrated the suits not only on him, but also on rhodes! thats why rhodes was able to just take tkae suit - because it was already programmed to be used by rhodes
Of course the drones where bigger, but HT wants to create a illusion of distance i think. they did the same with the Veronica-party and the repulsors which came with the Mark 47.