US Marines purchase 10,000 drones, $4,000 per unit
America has redefined the word "cheap."
As is well known, after seeing Ukraine making creative use of drones, the US also launched relevant military research, such as the concept of "Hellscapes" that aims to flood the Taiwan Strait with unmanned equipment and the "Replicator" program. The US military hopes to obtain one or more low-cost, inexpensive, and quickly producible unmanned systems.
Then the US military began to issue tenders. According to information from the website "The War Zone," on December 18, the US Marine Corps released a request for information seeking companies that can provide 10,000 first-person view (FPV) drones by January 1, 2027.
However, it's quite puzzling that the US Marine Corps specified a drone price of $4,000 per unit in the request for information—can this really be called cheap and low cost?
In the comment section of this news, many American netizens have also criticized, saying that the US military would be better off buying parts and assembling them themselves, or using 3D printing to make them on their own.
In fact, given that the US defense industry has been taken over by the military-industrial complex, the US military's $4,000 per drone procurement is actually very normal. After all, with the supply chain, technical standards, and profits layered up, the final price to the military usually increases several times or even tenfold—it would be news if it didn't.
Previously, the US Air Force once bought a set of parts for $90,000. Therefore, the US Marine Corps' $4,000 per drone might really be the "low-cost price" that the procurement department had to bite the bullet to offer.
Link:
Marines Seeking 10,000 First-Person View Drones At $4K A Pop
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1852197191456135/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author alone.