If you are firing on a target that is so close to friendlies that 2 seconds of on the ground movement can make a difference, then that is a danger close fire mission - which is rare. They also lead to additional safety checks and procedures before final execution. For example: normally an aircraft could just drop ordinance from any angle, but for danger close they align the friendly unit with the target - dropping ordinance once they've passed over the friendlies. While a drone can't really do that, the detached nature of the operator would actually be an advantage in that situation. If I had to choose between someone dropping bombs near me with a Google maps like interface or some dude rolling in riding 30 tons of angry aircraft, I'd choose the point and click option.

Former jarhead here, familiar with "danger close" ;)

My point was just that, though: 2s of latency on a danger close fire-mission is something that brings the pucker-factor up to a solid 9. At least for me, the (former) grunt on the ground.

Huh, I just assumed you were AF because you've made the same argument that they use for dragging their feet on drone deployment - the value added by retaining a large amount of human judgement in process that no longer requires it. I imagine the folks who got replaced by standardized tooling during the industrial revolution made the same obviously self serving argument.

Well grunts can disagree, I was an 0331 ten years ago, but you've got me curious about what experience has informed your thinking on this matter. I've only been down range of danger close fire missions twice, and in neither case were we moving around much. The first was when we were pinned down, and the other was when our foot patrol stumbled onto a numerically superior enemy with technicals. I'm hard pressed to think of a situation where a danger close is made any more dangerous by adding a two second delay. Even in a scenario where your FDL is breached and you're poking people to death, there is a clear delineation - you aren't running past your attackers. A flanking maneuver would confusing that delineation, but that takes a lot longer than whatever delay the drone operator faces.