Military Spending Example Black Hornet Drone for the Ukraine only $195,000 each

 

Black Hornet Drone "Hand Launching" 

Known officially as the "Black Hornet Nano" the tiny military drone made by Teledyne FLIR who also makes the IR camera module for this nano drone. 

Made in small volumes with high overhead costs, complex network security control systems for the wireless interface, a complex control station for the military operator thats robust & fault tolerant with rapid reboot and long battery life, with jamming resistant connection to the drone and high resolution video streaming of color and IR videos for tactical reconnaissance imaging on the go in real time. 

One hundred & ninety five thousand dollars / primary example of military absurd obscene spending per unit just like that $420,000 FIM-92 thats been in production since the 1960's when it was 100X less costly.  FIM-92 the Stinger Missile & Launch Control Module System + Argon Cooling Battery Canisters to Power & Chill the IR imagine system by Zeiss with exceptional CBS Clear Blue Sky aircraft engine heat seeking & locking onto target ability. 

A commercial DJI drone with the same technology 20X more less costly with better signal performance for video streaming, better CMOS for color imaging video and still image capture & no IR though that can be added for nominal cost. Look I understand that DJI leverages the economies of scale to wrap R&D costs into a tiny cost for each of the millions of drones that DJI manufactures and sells worldwide. 

Hop on Amazon and you can get an analog Chinese knockoff that looks & functions like the real Black Hornet Nano for about 100 or one hundred US dollars, with batteries and a controller. Other much better drones are available that use your smartphone as the interface the same way that many DJI drone controllers leverage the associate APP on your Smartphone as the Imaging brains & control brains interface and for web based verification of where you are flying it. 

I had to get special permission to fly my 294 Gram DJI Mavic Mini 2 near a hospital in Eastern Washington by going to the FAA website and verifying that I was not collecting the data for commercial spying or for espionage working for a foreign state, which is ridiculous given the toy drones abilities, lack of IR imaging or payload capacity, short useful range, short battery life, and limited performance. That was with using my regular iPhone 14 as the information controller interface or launch control module when connected by lightning cable adapter to the drone remote control unit in the spring holder assembly at the top of the controller. 

2013 Model in Image / See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hornet_Nano

By 2014 more than 3000 units delivered to customers, thats 10 years ago, so probable 20X that amount have sold to customer now, meaning they are made in the 10,000 unit/ year volume, not one at a time!

Developed via £20 million contract of 160 units for Marlborough Communications Ltd

Rapid 20 minute training to operate! 

3 cameras forward, 90 down and 45 deg till down. The package control 2 drones with rapid to 90% charging within 20-25 min depending on temperature of the drone battery and package which is influence by climate and weather of where these are operated. 

Top speed 13 MPH or 21 KPH 

1 mile of 1.6 km of digital data link to send imaging information from drone to control and control information from the controller to the drone. Long Wave IR imager update enables superior tactical reconnaissance imagine performance of enemy targets since nearly everything used by a military release IR energy, including the people!