Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines designed and oversaw the Obama administration's counterterrorist drone program from 2013 until 2015 as deputy CIA director. She contributed to the administration's “playbook” for reforming military drone usage, which attempted to increase transparency through measures like publishing numbers of combatant and non-combatant deaths caused by strikes. Before that role, she served as a national security legal adviser, where she assisted with directing covert CIA programs like drone strikes.
By its end, the Obama administration had launched 540 drone strikes and vastly expanded their use in non-battlefield territories such as Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia. Biden disregarded progressive and libertarian objections to Haines‘ nomination. On Inauguration Day she became his first appointee to gain Senate confirmation.