[GonzoGOP]

You’re probably off by several orders of magnitude. A simple drone for army use could probably be produced (not developed) for $20k/unit.

I'll stick with my numbers. The JDAM itself costs $35,000 to $70,000 just for the tail kit. A UCAV, not just a model aircraft with a camera, but something that can actually drop bombs and strafe tanks, is going to cost a lot more than a bomb. A BGM-109 Tomahawk costs 1.4 million, although congress wants to cut it to half that with the next order. And it only has to fly one way.

Does the government over price things, Yes. Does the military feature creep projects till they cost 10 times what they should, Hell Yes. Can they build a UCAV that can bomb, strafe, and fly COIN missions for under a million a pop, not much of a chance.

[OneWingedShark]

The drone itself, not the armament... after all you don’t pay for all the ammo you shoot when you buy your gun.

And to be honest, once you get past the designing (which includes prototypes etc) and get to production-level models you introduce the cost-dropping effect of the assembly-line.

If it was me doing it, I’d want to produce 10k to 50k on the “first order” and then extensively use them, remember the goal here is “cheap UAVs” and as such should be bought on such a scale that it would be integrated into many/most army units much like the OE-254 (a big antenna) is commonly found in Communication sections across the nation (and overseas, I’d wager).