Canada owns and uses unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), but its military services have acquired and integrated them into their force structure and operations with different degrees of ease. Service differences are explained with a three variable innovation adoption framework that integrates cost, impetus, and disruptive nature. The Army and Navy framed UAVs as relatively inexpensive adaptive innovation that would help avoid operational failures. The Air Force framed UAVs as expensive disruptive innovation that could improve performance of core functions but experienced UAVs as inexpensive adaptive innovations that helped avoid operational failure; yet these successes were perceived as inadequate. Analyzing services captures processes that national studies miss.