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Short abstract:

This work explores military drones in the Brazilian Armed Forces as essential actors in the military-industrial complex. Through a multi-situated ethnography, it demonstrates how drones' circulation shapes military institutions and defense markets, highlighting their role as enablers and promoters.

Long abstract:

Drones have been adopted by the Brazilian Armed Forces since the beginning of the 2000s. Until 2019, their use was restricted to exceptional situations and tended to have an experimental character: operations in border regions, military exercises, or as surveillance tools on special occasions, such as the mega-events held in Brazil in the last decade. It is possible to state that the primary function of military drones in Brazil was to be part of military doctrine development processes focused on intelligence, surveillance, and monitoring operations. However, besides this function, the military drone is also a commodity and, as such, has a fundamental role. When analyzed in their circulations as socio-technical arrangements, drones can be observed not only as mere intermediaries but also as enablers and promoters of individuals, military institutions, private companies, and defense and security policies. In this work, carried out from a multi-situated ethnography done between 2016 and 2019 with military personnel from the Brazilian Armed Forces in military exercises, seminars, workshops, and defense and security technology fairs, I demonstrate that when drones circulate, going from their manufacturers to exhibitions and, eventually, reaching the hands of their end users, they actually take part in the relationships that structure the military-industrial complex. In other words, this work shows how drones are actors currently contributing to the maintenance and transformation of military institutions and the defense and security market.