Increasing Complexity and Uneven Results

This chapter focuses on the command and control of drone operations, which spans international, organizational, and intellectual boundaries. The complex information system that directs U.S. drone campaigns developed historically through many iterations of exploitation and reform. The chapter looks at the dynamic interaction of different types of information practice over time. In a process reminiscent of the bottom-up development of FalconView, practitioners made many improvements to Predator and Reaper drones and to the information systems that controlled them. This long learning process was punctuated with tragic fratricides and civilian deaths. Catalyzed by such errors, an institutional framework gradually evolved to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of drone operations. Practitioners throughout a global command and control system struggled to capture the benefits of managed and adaptive practice while avoiding the pitfalls of insulated and problematic practice. Emergent military solutions encouraged actors to alter the strategic problems, and new solutions increased system complexity over time.