Original comment is about article content - "SMALL" UAV, i.e. tactical / infantry / battlefield level. As in the small UAV war in UKR frontlines that US marines is training for is against likely obsolete platforms because UKR is not capable of developing anything more advanced, like next gen autonomous switchblade tier+ munitions that can be massed at scale due to obscenely low prices and minimal operator / controller requirements.
A more reasonable price floor would be $300-500 for a performant 5-8 inch drone comparable to kamikaze drones in UKR. In case of PRC, mass produced in modern factories, developed by resourced military R&D, value engineered/acquired with almost no margins etc etc, instead of improvised in small workshops and software tweaked by hobbyist like UKR. For reference large 30kg industrial DJI Agras agriculture robot with AESA radar cost 8k factory direct in domestic PRC market. Not many operators can afford to mass switchblade at US prices with US MIC markup (I'm guessing including US).
When I say proximity mine, I mean small drone parks itself in some nook in lower power model, it's possible to run camera/sensors for days tied to purpose designed commodity hardware/SoC/ASIC, i.e. yolo/edge algo detects a heat signature that's roughly human, drone turns on and hunts it. It's a glorified flying claymore. Can even fall back as dumb claymore. IMO in near term against highend forces, those are the kind of drones marines will likely face - if conflict somehow devolves into point where tactical level drones are being used at all. TBH something has likely gone very wrong higher up in the force spectrum / strategic / multi domain levels if conflict devolves into small tactical drones, i.e. mop up survivors. The real fight is probably already over before that point.
A more reasonable price floor would be $300-500 for a performant 5-8 inch drone comparable to kamikaze drones in UKR. In case of PRC, mass produced in modern factories, developed by resourced military R&D, value engineered/acquired with almost no margins etc etc, instead of improvised in small workshops and software tweaked by hobbyist like UKR. For reference large 30kg industrial DJI Agras agriculture robot with AESA radar cost 8k factory direct in domestic PRC market. Not many operators can afford to mass switchblade at US prices with US MIC markup (I'm guessing including US).
When I say proximity mine, I mean small drone parks itself in some nook in lower power model, it's possible to run camera/sensors for days tied to purpose designed commodity hardware/SoC/ASIC, i.e. yolo/edge algo detects a heat signature that's roughly human, drone turns on and hunts it. It's a glorified flying claymore. Can even fall back as dumb claymore. IMO in near term against highend forces, those are the kind of drones marines will likely face - if conflict somehow devolves into point where tactical level drones are being used at all. TBH something has likely gone very wrong higher up in the force spectrum / strategic / multi domain levels if conflict devolves into small tactical drones, i.e. mop up survivors. The real fight is probably already over before that point.