I assume the cost is mostly about product and software development (and a hefty, hefty profit margin). I’m sure it has top-of-the-line parts, it’s ruggedized, etc. but those can only account for so much of the cost. I’m guessing less than a thousand dollars worth of parts per drone, and they’re going to be pretty rugged to start with, given how few moving parts there are. But research and developing custom software - which would be an ongoing expenditure - would add up to a significant cost relative to the parts, I’d imagine. Still not $200K, of course…
The interesting bit for me is that someone could make something like these a heck of a lot cheaper, especially if that someone was willing to make due with something that wasn’t quite as good in terms of durability and software complexity. The militaries using these $100,000 drones are going to be matched by those with fleets of $400 drones…
this is why chemical agents are worthless against armies which use modern military doctrine. when the costs of creating a stockpile of thousands of tons of chemical agents loaded into missiles and shells, plus the cost of the delivery systems designed to disperse them, plus the costs of the logistic network needed to deploy them and keep them serviced can all be offset by the opponent deploying a $300 respirator plus a $200 environmental suit to each soldier there’s no purpose served by it.
If it’s a smaller company, they have a large amount of overhead just to be certified to be a defense contractor, and much more so if they do classified work.
As a Bostonian I am constantly amazed by the mispronunciation of Massachusetts cities and towns. The town in the U.S. Army Natick Soldier.Systems Center is pronounced “Nay-Tick” not “Nah-Tick” How hard is that?
