How much rank do you need in the Army to buy a toy drone?

There's something about special forces always buying disposable consumer kit out of pocket for one-off missions.

Army secretary reveals how Rangers bypass Pentagon red tape to counter exploding drone threat

Elite Army units bypass traditional procurement by using credit cards to test new equipment while the service shifts posture toward countering China in the Indo-Pacific.

Yahoo NewsMorgan Phillips

It's a crass consumerization or politicization of what really should be (and needs to be) the best of the best. With the top secret clearances, the published memoirs, business on the Senate floor, there's a certain ingratiating presumptuousness or chutzpah to some of this stuff.

I don't know what it is, in some fashion, you need to lace your boots just like everybody else, and get moving on the same schedule — special mission you might have been trained for — some of those guys are independent contractors, too, and do bear in mind, humans are frail and weak, and life is brief and troublesome in this area.