

This is a small low-altitude but long-endurance drone for reconnaissance. Just for the fun of it, here are some of the most expensive military drones. For example, engineers are working on equipping them with the ability to self repair, to land themselves, and stay aloft for months instead of days.So, why are military drones so expensive? To answer this, we must look at them next to typical civilian drones.

Here is a recap of the cost of drones we have mentioned: Name of Drone The UK, Netherlands, France, and Spain air forces also use Reapers. They can fly for over a thousand miles and operate non-stop for 14 hours. Reaper drones carry laser-guided bombs and other types of air-to-surface missiles to serve the U.S Armed Forces. Interesting Fact: The Global Hawk that almost waged war against Iran in 2019 cost $220 million. The Global Hawk scans mobile phone calls for surveillance of signals rather than combat, though. These types of drones are usually armed and sent for extrajudicial killing missions.Ī popular example is the Global Hawk, which is operated over conflict zones and can fly at an altitude of up to 18,000 meters. They are run by pilots on the ground through a satellite link-up. These are the more well-known military drones, in the U.S Armed Forces, particularly. 1 Heron and 1 ground station cost about $140 million. It is used by the U.S, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Morocco, and India, for reconnaissance use. They are primarily used for ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance) purposes. These drones are also commonly referred to as HALE or MALE drones, which are acronyms for High Altitude Long Endurance and Medium Altitude Long Endurance, respectively. Another example is the Raven, which can cost more than $35,000 per unit it looks like this: 3. It is able to fly for 12 hours at a max range of 90 kilometers. They can be carried by soldiers in pockets to be tossed up into the air. These are small (but not as small as micro-drones and nano-drones) and lightweight. One example is the Black Hornet, which is 1-inch-by 4-inch. Despite being tiny in size, these drones are fully equipped with high-tech cameras for surveillance, and can usually send image data back to their terminals digitally. These are super small, “insect-sized” drones that you often see in blockbuster movies. Here is what the pricey Predator drone looks like: Types of Military Drones In detail, the common Predator drone that the military is known to use (in Iraq and Afghanistan) is roughly 40 million dollars per system. 8 Examples of Expensive Military DronesĪs we have said earlier, U.S military drone costs can range up to tens of thousands of dollars.
