The post Some Of The Pentagon’s Drones Cost Their Weight In Gold appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

The U.S. Army’s new RQ-28A is breathtakingly expensive compared to its civilian counterparts made by … [+] the same company. U.S. Army Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks is pushing the Replicator project down a fast track, with contractor selection expected in December. Replicator seeks to rapidly produce thousands of small, highly capable drones fat low cost. It is a feat which would be easy enough in the commercial sector but in the military it is like trying to defy the law of gravity; the seemingly inexorable cost escalation described by the cynically humorous Augustine’s Laws. Simply, building this to military specification, and jumping through all the hoops of certification, testing and approval pushes costs up. Contactors who are on a working on a “cost plus” basis have little incentive to keep them down. Things are different in the conflict in Ukraine, where both sides have deployed tens of thousands of small commercial drones. Consumer quadcopters costing less than $2,000 have become vital for tactical reconnaissance, adjusting artillery fire and carrying bombs. FPV racing drones costing $400 have become kamikazes able to take out tanks and other targets. Ukrainian Fundraisers United24 recently showed images of the first 800 of a batch of 3,000 FPV drones being shipped to the front line, all built locally. Some of the Ukrainian-made models are highly sophisticated, with the sort of autonomy that Hicks appears to be seeking for Replicator. Repeating this feat with Replicator will face a major challenge from entrenched U.S. practices. Contractors are sometimes accused of adding unnecessarily expensive components to their products to push up profits, a practice known as “gold plating.” This may be an understatement. Some drones would be cheaper if they were made of solid gold. Short Range (But High Cost) Reconnaissance The Skydio 2 drone, which one…

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Filed under: News - @ December 4, 2023 10:12 am