lol its price is outrageous the American drones you are talking about can fly halfway around the world and drop their bombs and fly back by themselves that's why they cost so much they aren't comparable
I could see this being $10k plus, even up to 20k, if the thermal, video and stills (of course not shown here) are as good as they claim. No way 195k per unit is justified.
Your dji sends everything you recorded, facial recognition and it's location data all get to the Chinese government. It requires an Internet connection to upload to the Internet. It's don't have a 1000 meter range. It's not resistant to jamming. It has zero emp protection. It can't communicate with satellites. It's easy to hack into and control. It can't send data to multiple devices at the same time. It can't be controlled by someone who is on the other side of the world... Don't work in bad weather, wind and snow for example. So your 200 dollar drone, is cheap because its not capable of doing what this drone can 😉
Yep it literally weighs 33 grams nothing is worth that much for something that small unless it has some magical anti matter technology inside that we don't know about
I did a little research on today's price (Oct 2024) and most of the quotes I'm seeing is $60K so it has gone down in price. Still expensive but I imagine the cost has gone down due to mass production. The initial price might have included R&D on it. Like a TV character said in a political show, "No, the first pill costs forty million; the ones after that cost two cents."
I laughed so hard when he said "ONLY $195,000 for each black hornet" then compared it to the reaper at 16 million to make it seem cheap .. Insane way our taxes go bye bye
This is the key point, that our taxes are seen as an endless resource, to be squandered however they see fit. This is why I don't trust the government to spend our taxes wisely.
$195,000 EACH - seriously?!? 🙄 they seem great and must be really useful in a warzone, but a Hi Spec tiny commercial drone with a camera costs less than $2,000. Add a fancy but tough monitor and software, let's say $5,000. This is exactly why military equipment is so expensive, the price of everything is ridiculously inflated and the taxpayer just has to bend over and take it right up were the Sun don't shine. You can imagine the Contractor's sales pitch : "Compared to a multi-million dollar long distance missile carrying drone, these are very cheap!" 🙄 ...as the Govt officials count thier latest bribes, er, I mean 'consultant fees'.
More to the point, rather than fight the enemy with these things, you could probably buy them! And the guy in the film seemed to have a box of them. "Hey enemy guys! How about a million dollars to switch side?" It's a million to one chance, but it might just work! 💸💸💸
It might've costed 10s or 100s of millions to develop and research and not many people want them so each unit has to be very costly to pay for the development costs. I guess that's why they're so expensive
@@frommarkham424 what?? they ALREADY EXIST! They aren't new, nothing about them is new, the software would be specific to the forces, but other than that... 100s millions of development? Not a chance.
I was thinking the same thing ... and even with one Mini 2 you might not be able to say "hold my beer", but at least you could say "hold my tax return".
the thing is, a lot of military technologies is not as advance anymore. people are smart these days. take a small team of people they can pretty much make anything military has. the only thing they cant produce is like aircraft and naval since those thing do cost too much.
Do you not see the obvious advantages this has over a big ass dji??? Come on. I keep seeing the same kind of comment. Its like none of you watched the video at all and just came to run your mouths...
"Powered by very small rechargeable battery DeSigNeD to rotate both horizontal and vertical rotors" - WOOOW, such a unique design! Rechargeable? Amazing! Both rotors at the same time? Impossibly advanced! Definitely worth 200K!
DJI mini 3 is far advanced than this but available at much cheaper retail price of 500$. Literally 400 times cheaper wrt retail price.. Mini 3 can shoot 4L HDR CMOS optical zoom 4X. Withstand 40 kmph wind speed. Battery life upto 50 minutes compared to 25 minutes here. Transmission length of video is 10 km compared to 1 km here. So much more. Only big thing about this is it's big price and Max profits. And it looks like mini helicopterer. Perhaps that choice was used to impress some old major general who thought it was impressive to look
It has amazing capabilities considering its size (3 cameras, including FLIR and night vision is impressive) but the price is ridiculous. I'd be surprised if it costs the company more than 5% of what they sell it for. But it's taxpayers money so nobody cares.
The FLIR camera's probably most of it. Those things are freaking expensive even in consumer applications. That said, yeah, that's insanely pricey for what it is.
As a voted and ordained Secretary representing our Veterans and Community... I CARE. Been in pro RC since 1987. And I agree with your financial assessment. Btw taxpayer money is less than .2% of the budget. And YES. We ALL care. Cool factoid. I built my first mechanical flying bird when I was 6 yo. Thanks dad. Then became a fan of Futaba and Airtronics. Ancient RC now.... Gosh what would happen if you integrated satellite GPS? And better digital optics with micro servo technology. Like a tootsie pop, the world will never know....
FLIR, custom silicon, military encryption, jamming countermeasures, rugged handheld unit, military certification, limited production runs, and to top it all off, the company also wants to make a profit. it all adds up.
I build fpv drones and just built one which is 3" diagonally, although its a Quadcopter it still weights 97g and cost me $200 to build (just the drone itself, transmitter cost and fpv goggles not included). And yea it pretty much can do 2.5+km
companies ripping off Uncle Sam which is essentially all taxpayers at the end of the day.... just the way biotech/pharmas and health insurance companies are doing also. Then people wonder how the US deficit got so high.
Yes, but you didn’t need to worry about things like encrypting the signal (to military standards) to prevent a hostile takeover of your device by the enemy - and other concerns that equipment on a battlefield must have to survive and be useful. That’s like comparing a go-cart to a police car. They operate in very different environments.
Back in high school I joined a science program in Australia and the military also visited, they showed us the drones and explained everything in detail, I had one in my hand and also the control panel and everything, it’s truly amazing. But I’m quite sure it’s not that expensive. I remember being shocked at how expensive the carbon rotors were, I think it was over a thousand dollars or so. But no way does that cost 200k, never ever, I would’ve remembered that.
Anything that is government supported gets market up massively because the manufacturers & service providers know that the government can waste & print taxpayer money endlessly. This is how the system is.
The only remarkable feature of this item is it's price-tag. Any cheap hobby helo or quad can be simply modified to extend operational range by GPS or operate within 1000M line of sight.
Not to mention the video keeps repeating the same obvious advantages of a tiny drone for 8 minutes comparing it to huge drones instead of comparing it to consumer drones.
Reading the comments made me smile. I was scared if I said anything I'd immediately get the words tinfoil-hat thrown in my face. I have a drone roughly the size of a Canadian $1 coin that was part of the toy line for one of the Spider-Man movies a few years back no way home or far from home I forget which one. They were at Walmart roughly 20 or $30. The thing is so tiny it'll fit in the middle of the palm of your hand has four little propeller blades on it Waze virtually nothing I forget if the charge time is 10 or 20 minutes it has a camera on it which takes an SD card and can be synced up with your cell phone and controlled with your cell phone and likewise your cell phone can connect with the camera on the Drone if I understand how it works correctly. The one that I have I've never tried to charge it and use it ironically got it in a box of stuff that somebody threw out until I seen it I didn't realize they were that small and readily available. It's actually smaller than this drone ironically and the same principle. The Drone itself is actually not expensive if anybody is wondering it's that damn unit that they're using to control it and the charger that are expensive. The unit they're using to operate at ironically is nearly identical to something I have I have 5 Windows 7 military issue tablets when they come out for the military they were insanely expensive and eventually ended up going on The Chopping Block we're a bunch of them were bought by a garbage collection company and used by that company I grabbed a handful of them where somebody had ended up with them and lifted them on eBay I think I paid $20 each where the guy didn't realize what they were. There's basically almost no information on the damn things had a hell of a job to eventually find one with the original version of Windows 7 on it so I could get the drivers to redo the others. The ones that I got and originally somebody had installed a version of Linux that had gone bad. They run some weird version of Windows 7 simply doing a Windows reinstallation doesn't give you most of the drivers amd i couldn't find Wagner all about them on TH-cam or anywhere is to get information.. Usually they go for a round 200 each untested on eBay LOL. The ones that I got I paid 10 and $20 each where people didn't realize they were valuable and listed them cheaply. Been trying to find out where to get replacement charge volt battery packs. They're pretty much identical to the unit they show and the video operating the Drone if I remember correctly they were about 5 or 10 grand a piece when they came out new they kind of look like the Pep Boy that you see in Fallout. Quite a neat little unit. They've got Bluetooth Wi-Fi and so on. I don't think it's the Drone itself that's expensive I think it's the handheld unit that they're operating it with.
@@peterparker6584 the drone itself is probably *also* stupidly expensive, to be fair, but those ruggidized military tablets are the real price tag when they're new. Pretty darn durable, though, so there's that at least. The price tag on the actual drones themselves probably comes from A) the FLIR sensor on them, which even in the comsumer space is a few grand for something decent. B) the higher-grade GPS receiver they get rather then what a simple Recall/Find Home type you'd get on another commercial quad, C) Specialized battery chemistry to withstand abuse you wouldn't do to a DJI. That said, they probably cost less then $10k to make even accounting for small order numbers on specific parts which all require individual DOD approval because that's how militaries work.
@@DFX2KX I'd expect the software and the customized computing hardware in them to add significantly more to the cost than any other hardware part. You can spread that cost over millions of pieces, and testing and other quality assurance requirements aren't nearly as expensive to fulfil, for something like smart TVs or smart watches. When you can only expect to sell a few thousand pieces, that cost goes up a thousand times.
Um,, yea! that is not a bad idea actualy. What does the soal of a I.S. solder cost these days? I mean we are spending millions to suvey them across the globe.
As someone who operates from the drone industry. I can tell you that this thing is no more than a big fat joke.. Single rotor uav's are extremely hampered by wind and other elements. This thing would topple over in less than a 10mph wind and become useless. That paired with the minimal flight time and flight control system make this thing nothing more than a high dollar paper weight.
@@J3R3MI6 it's called a flight controller and even if it does, the single rotor still makes it useless.. "The military isn't stupid".... I suggest you do some reading my friend. Start with - Waste, Greed, and Fraud: The Business that Makes the World’s Greatest Army
That's why i think you should not pilot these type of drones but just point them towards where you want them and they on their own should be able to move there. So at that price they better come with some top notch software and additional sensors i presume.
@Tesla cult: Exactly. My neighbour just 100 metres away asked me I had found his child's toy helicopter (one of those 4 inch tiny toys), It had disappeared in a mild breeze towards my house. Ten years later I found it on my porch roof and returned it, albeit in pretty bad shape. Edit: i have a cheap chinese RC helicopter that can handle a slight breeze, came fitted with a camera that can take video and stills. Drawback is that all the data needs to be put onto a PC to be seen. This is an easy and cheap thing to fix for live video for soldiers...and mine has a range of about 1km.
Exactly. I have 2 one super cheap and the other a bit more expensive and the slightest breeze will ground them both. I could see this one doing well in an indoor environment though.
This is a perfect example of capability that a military model might have (extremely fast software running thrust vectoring... plus whatever else it would need to defeat the wind) that you would NEVER see in a consumer drone.
I remember reading about intense competition by a number of developers in Silicon Valley who were pushing the limits of drone miniaturization. They had already pushed it pretty far. They were getting down to the size of small bugs, like flies, ants and fleas. New developments and progress were moving along rapidly. That was way back in the 1980s. I can't even imagine what they must have developed by now.
A friend of mine in the US military got to use one of these and what puts this drone above the rest is the optics in such a small package. He says the optics are insane, especially the night vision.
So the updated versions include night vision too? What about IR? Both of those features wouldn't be so hard to include with todays technology. Maybe the price could be adjusted down a bit too.
This thing is also extremely quiet. Is the hardware worth the price? Highly doubt it, but I don't think there is any kind of consumer grade drone that is as capable as this system in a warfare environment. Anything DJI makes would give away your position the moment you launched it.
@@Inertia888 I would have to disagree with your opinion on the sound, I fly both Copters and Quads, the sound comes from the motors and the air being disturbed by the prop(s), Quads make more sound because there's more of them, my Copters are a lower frequency because of the larger diameter Prop needed for lift, but they are easily heard 100 ft away. Note that NO VIDEO exists of the Drone flying with ambient sound... also the official Teledyne Website DOESN'T disclose Sound Signature it only says "Best in Class" you must write them to obtain that info.
@@Timinator62 Size makes a difference in its functional detectability though. It might make some noise, but because it's so tiny, it may still remain hidden for a while, especially in the dark. And that's assuming it's a dead silent environment to begin with. If there's heavy machinery operating nearby or aircraft taking off and landing, this could probably go completely unnoticed.
@@tastyham Yeah so? I have a WiFi 4K Camera with IR that I took out of a $35.00 Security Camera on one of my mini Drones complete with 360 degree rotation. Glad YOU love the Government spending YOUR money.
And problem whit DJI Mavic Mini is "made in China" Russia already using technology to try take out Ukrainian drone operators.. they can "see" where you take of/land and use artillery. for military then it cant been made in china..
@@nazahelbrum3318 Yes whit a directional antenna & scanner you can detect most things and in what direction but not exactly. been doing similar whit radio amateurs "Fox hunting" its a lot of running around, now try same things if they use military grade "frequency hopping" and Encryption.. its radio waves everywhere and witch one do you want to target? you can'y see what its does Encrypted and you'll don't know where because its mostly just static noise.
This looks like a little toy my son got at a gas station All seriousness though, it looks like an amazing tool, but that price point feels *insane* Still, I guess that trillion dollar military budget has to go somewhere, and it sure isn't salaries for enlisted soldiers xD
Well duh thats what happens when you have and infinity budged paid with someone elses money. Like 330,000,000 taxed peasants. At 1$ a pop you got a free cool $330 million. Now 1$ a pop every week x 330 million. Thats $18.5 billion. Or 94,769 air hogs.. what does the DOD care how much they cost, they dont pay for them. Just like all the equipemt, arms, and tech they leave over seas. Rember folks... WAR IS A HIGHLY LUCRATIVE FOR MAJOR PROFIT BUSINESSES. PROFITABLE FOR EVERYONE BUT THE COMMON FOLK IT DESTROYS.
@@Ksshortyb And the crazy part is that the tax money doesn't come close to paying for what we spend. Most of it is just printed and deficit spent. Someday the hosue of cards will collapse, but until then, connected rich people are going to keep getting rich as hell off absurd contracts.
Who knows the shit they have now. I killed a mosquito the other day and it burst into flames after hitting the floor. I’m starting to think it weren’t no mosquito…
In consumer drone years, yes. In terms of (custom) chip manufacturing, not a lot changed. Electric motors, carbon fiber frames etc. have been around forever.
@@juicejordan06 have you ever flown a drone that small. It is even suggested to not fly in wind. Small winds alone can make flying them hard. That’s why they are suggested for indoor. Plus being small those things are loud once the blades get going.There’s no way those things are useful. And you’re comparing an insect which is built by Mother Nature to fly with tiny wings. Just because we can fly planes like a bird doesn’t mean we possess the same agility of a bird.
I would be more likely to believe that a $195,000 'unit' would consist of a working system with everything you need to make it work as shown here with perhaps 8 of those flying camera drones that pop up for use. The video portends that each of those little drones are $195k and I can't believe that.
@@alphabeets if it gets windy there’s a sandstorm in which more than just the drone would be useless. How well can you see with sand blowing in your eyes?
$195,000 for that?! I can believe it. When I worked at the Marine Corps logistics base (MCLB) Yermo Annex in Barstow Ca, in the tactical radar and navigation systems dept, I needed to replace a 19 pin computer terminal cover or "block". The vendor I ordered the part from charged the Base $2,000 for the small plastic part...that's just wrong yo!
@@blakjack3053 do you remember the defense contractor AeCom? They are the ones who were charging the marine corps like 2500$ for a bolt, 3700 for a mirror ect...back in 2005 or so.
What people are missing here, regarding price, is the available sensor & battery options. There are sensor types that contain pure unobtainium to detect otherwise impossible things as well as batteries that are generations ahead of what's in your latest phone. Take a $500 FLiR camera for example. Hardly useful at 240x320. These have a full HD IR resolution that is zoomable. Custom variable spread spectrum digital transmission and control protocols etc. Try using your smart phone 100 feet inside a granite cliff. Yeah, exactly.
Seems a bit expensive, even for our military budget. I can see how it could be very useful though. The open rotors give me some pause as they can be a vulnerability in tight spaces should it accidentally strike something.
Price point, for sure. It's a huge mark-up. But we don't know what sensors are in it. It would not surprise me if it has some proximity sensor, can sense when it is too close to an object. I have been paying attention to this thing for years now, and I can only hope that one day before I die, I will be able to learn what the electronics and sensor layout is.
@@DartTyler lol micro sensors aren't that expensive. 6 year year old is working on projects using arduino and micro sensors. Believe me this mini drone shown in the video is nothing more than wasting of tax payer money
The price must be an initial outlay for the first shipment which usually includes rolled-in RnD costs and production start-up. If that is actually the cost of the unit according to material and production costs alone, then not all of the money is actually going to the drone. Wonder what else is getting funded? This is starting to sound like a $5000 screwdriver.
You will shocked with the fact that this drone has a mini nuclear reactor in his core which gives it so much power for a long time Source - Trust me bro 😂😂😂
I was expecting the cost of a average car but 200k?! For that much, it better find it's target then expand into a full size helicopter and crushes the enemy.
Big may not always mean better. Small drones definitely have its advantages! Take the Mini 2 for example, it's size makes it the most travel-friendly drone compared to all other camera drones.
My mini ia good in a little wind. I mean, i can use it at the beach fine. Carrying case is about the size of a pistol case. My gues is it goes maybe 25mph. The reaper is only used for personal recon. does it use AI tracking? It should cost ablut $500 tops. Way overpriced, thsts crazy
Yea surveillance equipment from a Chinese brand, that can be forced to hand over data to the government, that is just the right choice for the armed forces lol!
Last time (as in a year ago) it was an $80,000 drone with the exact same capabilities as this one that is now over double the price. The capabilities of this drone are still that of a sub $500 drone I can buy on the internet right now.
@@1pcfred no, thats just typical wasteful government spending, inflation at 9% doesnt justify this drone more than doubling in price. I bet India doesn't pay that much for theirs.
These things will not last very long but if you are behind a wall or in a trench and need to see where the enemy is so you can make plans of attack, they will do exactly what you need them to do for as long as you need them to do it. After the battle is over, if it was not brought back before the battle starts, if its location is tracked when used, it can be recovered and reused if not destroyed during the battle.
Kind of cool, and maybe a great way to help finding combatants and civilians hiding in a warzone that troops may need to enter. But, with all the info in this video being public, knowing the battery capacity and flight times, it wouldn't be to tough, if you spotted the drone, to know you have incoming people withing a certain radius
I guess this means that if somebody starts making such drones for under 5K, they will have huge success. Regardless, at 16grams of weight and being so small, it looks to be useless with a moderate breeze.
Yeah I agree with the stability issues, I have a bunch of "Drones" some small and some 2ft., I also have Helicopters some small JUST LIKE this, and the Helicopter is drastically effected by wind, a slight breeze blows it all over, the Prop spins so fast that it's actually like a Disk when the wind blows on it, tilt the prop toward the wind and 'Copter gets forced down, get the wind under the prop and the 'Copter wants to gain altitude and roll over, even with gyros to help stabilize. The Multi Rotors don't have this problem until the winds get to about 6 Knots.
It's for when they start killing people in the cities who don't comply. They have been already training for that type of warfare. It's not that windy in most cities
And thanks to two engineers who worked on the development of this fabulous drone, you can have that Military technology not for half the price, not even a third, you can get it for $99.99 plus shipping.
Comparing the hornet drone to Reaper drone is like comparing a boat with a cargo ship, yes they both are used for tranport but the scale is very different, and so the price comparison is also not relevant. They don't replace each other, they have their own use cases.
We had quite a few of these in my platoon in Afghanistan. My operators flew them ahead of our dismount to give us a birdseye view of whats behind walls and beyond the next house.
20 year pointless war that didn't benefit a single taxpayer. More of a training ground on how to drone bomb civilians. In the end, the Taliban was victorious & took control of billions in US weaponry.
@@jjw6342 that's right, instead of being wasted on this all that tax payer money embezzled by defence contractors could be used for cancer treatments or surgeries for people who can't afford it.
Insects go where the wind blows them, then just go about their business wherever. Or do you imagine a beetle or butterfly will go exactly to a pre-determined point in even moderately strong gusts of wind?
@@stephanuhu963 Monarch butterflies all fly over 3,000 miles to Mexico every year. They are definitely affected by the weather as are jumbo jets, but I'm not sure how you can conclude that they "go where the wind blows them." That's nonsense....The insects obviously can't defeat hurricane winds, but then again neither can we. Is that the goal? I think there are more intelligent ways, and to be honest more realistic, and efficient ways to fool the enemy....My point is that if a honey bee can do it...so can we.
How many lives have the Black Hornet saved so far? It has so many more functions in addition to be invisible for enemies troops, and armies are willing to keep it in their deposits.
Just a few years ago, the navy had a $38,000 hand held controller break, so they started using Xbox 360 controllers. It won’t be long, these expensive drones will be replaced by off the shelf consumer electronics.
I'd still end up driving it right into a ceiling fan. I'd try to recover it on the rebound and would end up crashing it into the nearest toilet. $195,000 or $19 at the mall, mine would be broken within 15 seconds of putting in the batteries.
I would love to see the stuff they are working on today! I bet they have swarms of tiny little drones that are able to send data between one another. Imagine a swarm of tiny drones, all filled with some high explosive, all able to "see" though each other's cameras & sensors, and send all of that data back to central command.
I think a lot of the cost would go into the software to run the thing, they didn't go too indepth with the features on the software side but it would have to be capable of secure communication back to its terminal preferably without being able to trace, if it used the standard radio frequency control system with most drones the enemy would be able to pinpoint exactly where it was being controlled from. I'm also curious to know how it would hold up with a light breeze, light might be good sometimes but not in all weather conditions.
Yes indeed, it's a ridiculous price for something so close to a toy regardless of anything. No bullshit about "extra rugged", "water proof" or anything can convince me that 195 000 USD is anything near a reasonable price for this. I actually doubt that the cost is so high.
US$195,000 Although the Army was seeking a mini-drone for use by individual squads through the Soldier Borne Sensors (SBS) program, the individually handmade Black Hornet was seen as too expensive for large-scale deployment, with a unit costing as much as US$195,000.
They will be $9.99 at Walmart by 2023...........$195 000 it would have to vacuum my house and finish me off every night after walking the dog and picking up my groceries..
They need an auto deployment version that automatically finds enemy weapon noises gets close and reports enemy locations to the squad and commanders. Then we wouldn't have to try and argue for fire support by guessing how big the fighting force is. Maybe have a pilot at base but ground troops deploy and maintain them.
Wow! Only $195k?! What a bargain! That's only 487 times the amount I paid for my DJI drone. All I need to do is sell my house, car, belongings, kidney, and blood plasma to afford one. I'm contacting a realtor and a drug-addicted back alley surgeon today!
I wonder how fast "stormy winds" are exactly. I wonder what happens to the max 25 minutes fly time in "stormy winds". I don't put my Mini 2 up in anything over 11 mph winds because it gets a little stressful. I'd still love to play around with one of these.
Geezus for 195k that drone better be made out of gold... I can 3D print a mini drone of the same size that can do the same crap for 65 bucks and mine has a 45 minute flight time with a rechargeable battery.
The drone definitely doesn't justify the price, even closely but after seeing this video I researched a bit and found that this drone has some good features not mentioned in this video like: - 20 min flight time ( go search on market a similar size drone for this much flight time, even a FPV drone has a 3 to 4 min max time) - can't even hear its presence beyond 3 mtrs (people saying to either buy DJI mavic or something else, I have one question: Have you even heard how loud they are?) - delivers 720p footage with negligible latency and flight distance of 2km distance (That is impressive but this resolution drops may drop to 320p) - also has multiple features just like your commercial drones ( like GPS assisted stabilization, etc) I had to find this information just for the people asking to buy either buy DJI drone or similar commercial drones for military. Guys understand that during war stealth is most important and this features help to save the life of our soldiers. So may nations have utilized this UAV in their military. But still it's price is still expensive. Limited manufacturing can be a driving point probably.
In concept, it's quite interesting. The functions it's capable of, but they're not saying, are probably even more interesting, and frightening. It is amusing how they frame it up as a cost savings though. I'm sure there is more then one gov't official (technically not) financially connected to the manufacturer.
I’ve been in the UAS industry as a professional consultant for civilian unmanned aircraft systems for the military ie: VT Group, Invictus technical solutions etc. As usual this is extremely overpriced and like someone said a DJI product can perform just as many of these functions if not more with better resolution video etc. but it’s all about politics and who’s nuts you rub to get your equipment into the hands of military contractors. A system I used to sell called the IT 180 coaxial UAS can fly for four hours, has insanely high resolution pan tilt systems with laser designators, thermal hd cameras and high zoom etc you can call in missile strikes Using the laser designator to paint targets it can be flown through microwave, satellite and other forms of technology allowing it to be operated from out of the area.. that system is $240,000 and does 90,000% more things than this thing could. The size of this little copter is great but when you miniature systems they become more susceptible to damage, lack payload capacity, Abilities to upscale product enhancements, You lose flight time and end up being pushed around in the air by wind. the size is honestly the only thing I thinks great but one accidental step on that product and you just gave away $195,000 of non-repairable UAV system. Check out the Prioria maverick hand launched UAS system that looks like a bird it is extremely lightweight and honestly makes more sense because it has longer flight times swappable camera payloads etc. The tall platforms are great but they lack long flight times which is critical no one wants to land in the middle of a major mission because your batteries are dead
Interesting video! One of these video systems on every traffic light controlled, intersection, and no more excuses for bad accidents. Also the demand for micro chips just went way up!
If so... how much does it cost, it's not a matter of concern.. If it's extremely light, it means that can not afford the weather changes.. otherwise it's not a fatal weapon.. If it's perfect for spy. Satellites doing the missions already.
Duck hunters from the southern U.S. are used to 10 gauge shotguns, blasting steel shot loads, through a full choke. Dare them they can't shoot them down and see what happens, lol.
Not sure thats a correct cost estimate. The manufacturer gets a deal with the military, that total price includes everything from training, licenses, chargers, controllers, mobile screens, support and long-term warranties. Also night vision integration is not cheap, implementing compatibility with datalink is also not something comerial drones have. Think some just takes the total price and divides it on the number of drones, which would get you a wrong unit cost. Don't get me wrong, its not cheap regardless.
195k must be the contractor's special price. It goes well with the $20 bagels to eat and the $100 generic pens to write down all your important notes on your $50 all weather paper.
Thank you for the video. There are many small drones as good or better than this at a much smaller cost. Who gets a commission for buying them for the military, and who gets money for advising the use?
Yes, I believe it's definitely possible to fit a tiny hand-sized drone with thermal imaging camera. There are drones fitted with relatively small TIC(s) for commercial applications, it's only a matter of time.
This drone is wierdly awesome. Also, I would recommend you to look up the garuda drone. It's a drone that looks like an eagle and was made and used by India ...
@@funkblackYou dont want a bolt to fail on a bridge either and they arent using "super special secret magic military bolts!!!" and they arent using $2000 bolts either. The notion that anything close to a significant portion of the markup on military products is due to an increase in actual product quality is laughable. Ask anyone who's been in the military, especially people who have also done engineering work outside the military.
Based on personal experience flying VERY small quads, anything over a mild breeze will ground them, which I think would make them a very limited use item. I wonder how many they have lost due to that fact alone.
Doesn't this thing get blown all over in the wind? I've messed around with miniature helicopters and they don't do very well outside with any kind of wind and the flight time isn't much more than a few minutes. I picture this being more useful in buildings provided there are no windows open and no air coming out of any vents.
Lots to say about the price, but if this thing is superior to its competition and keeps your troops safe, it is still worth it. It's a simple matter of demand and supply. But there might be room for better offers. Europe is buying!
I understand how these systems windup being so expensive as the developer has to address a seemly endless array of "must have" requirements. It seems reasonable the Intelligence gained by these systems is often very perishable and must be acted on very quickly. This makes systems like the Black Hornet invaluable if not affordable.
agreed. I would wager > 3/4 of the comment section have never done business with or been in the military to understand the stringent requirements. I would also wager that same percentage have never been a part of any serious engineering development. Data feeds, security, resilience, and a myriad of other factors will skyrocket the cost.
Sunk cost i understand, but to the point of $195k, EACH?! There's over 12,000 produced. The manufacturer is milking this one badly. Seriously, the material + manufacturing cost of this thing is a few hundred dollars max, if even. Sounds more like someone has to break even on the bribes (consultation fee) that's been paid.
A New American $155 Million Drone th-cam.com/video/4VJA2R0Xp7Q/w-d-xo.html
it's Norwegian!
lol its price is outrageous the American drones you are talking about can fly halfway around the world and drop their bombs and fly back by themselves that's why they cost so much they aren't comparable
@@joejacko1587 American? they made in Hønefoss Norway! Flir bought the comapany---
@@sidvich The Stingray which Joe and the link is referring to is American.
@@svenhaheim Well the title says Black Hornet...
I could see this being $10k plus, even up to 20k, if the thermal, video and stills (of course not shown here) are as good as they claim.
No way 195k per unit is justified.
That's how these trash companies rips off the fed government and we have a 30T dollar debt and mounting.
@@chesi_7_0_79 although that's part of it, healthcare is definitely the biggest part of US debt. We're up to $4.1 trillion a year now.
Government money laundry justified...
It ain't worth 3k
@@seanthe100 And after seeing this one example of how the government wastes money, imagine if the government managed healthcare...
A DJI mini 2 can do pretty much the same thing for $200, gotta love that government pricing 😂
For that price it better be able to stand on its head and fart the star spangled banner. Lol
I mean a DJI mini 2 is pretty loud and plus it’s pretty small so it’s more for stealth purposes
There’s even smaller drones than that and they can literally go 25+ miles 🤣🤣
Your dji sends everything you recorded, facial recognition and it's location data all get to the Chinese government.
It requires an Internet connection to upload to the Internet.
It's don't have a 1000 meter range.
It's not resistant to jamming.
It has zero emp protection.
It can't communicate with satellites.
It's easy to hack into and control.
It can't send data to multiple devices at the same time.
It can't be controlled by someone who is on the other side of the world...
Don't work in bad weather, wind and snow for example.
So your 200 dollar drone, is cheap because its not capable of doing what this drone can 😉
yep cheap China products
Regardless of how advanced this thing is, there is no way the production costs justify the price
because they allow lobbying which is stuffing politicians pockets for contracts like those.
This was drone was made in 2008 hence the price tag
@@harrisonh8664 What would be the price of such mini drone if it was designed with today's technology?
@@Cedrik_BOI 11 dollars.
@@harrisonh8664 That's your justification😂 Ok. And CNN is the most trustworthy TV station🤣
$195K per unit? = $190K to buy the military bureaucrats, $5K to build the drone.
Yep it literally weighs 33 grams nothing is worth that much for something that small unless it has some magical anti matter technology inside that we don't know about
Actually, the bureaucrats who help push the contracts forward probably got around $5K while the corporations keep the rest.
I did a little research on today's price (Oct 2024) and most of the quotes I'm seeing is $60K so it has gone down in price. Still expensive but I imagine the cost has gone down due to mass production. The initial price might have included R&D on it. Like a TV character said in a political show, "No, the first pill costs forty million; the ones after that cost two cents."
I laughed so hard when he said "ONLY $195,000 for each black hornet" then compared it to the reaper at 16 million to make it seem cheap .. Insane way our taxes go bye bye
this is the same as when they overpaid for hammers and toilet seats, they use the money to pay for secret projects, our govt is evil
I'm sure the 600% mark-up for selling it to governments doesn't hurt either.
I find it funny that they imply that no enemy countries can make these or use these. What could possibly cost $195,000 in that thing. It’s absurd.
Take it to China reverse engineer it and you’ll see it at your nearest China town market for $25
This is the key point, that our taxes are seen as an endless resource, to be squandered however they see fit. This is why I don't trust the government to spend our taxes wisely.
$195k for that!!! Biggest scam on the planet!
Donno, there's Joe Bidey. We got scammed with his promotion.
U.S Army pay $300 to Haliburton for a screw no joke.
I was getting my credit card out till I saw that.
But it's "Cost Effective". Also, way cheaper than a B2 or an Aircraft Carrier ;p
Biggest scam is the "planet" itself. Heliocentric Pseudoscientism Cult.
$195,000 EACH - seriously?!? 🙄 they seem great and must be really useful in a warzone, but a Hi Spec tiny commercial drone with a camera costs less than $2,000. Add a fancy but tough monitor and software, let's say $5,000. This is exactly why military equipment is so expensive, the price of everything is ridiculously inflated and the taxpayer just has to bend over and take it right up were the Sun don't shine.
You can imagine the Contractor's sales pitch : "Compared to a multi-million dollar long distance missile carrying drone, these are very cheap!" 🙄 ...as the Govt officials count thier latest bribes, er, I mean 'consultant fees'.
It's all complete BS.
Money is no object when using someone else's money. Also, if they don't have enough money, the govt will just print more.
More to the point, rather than fight the enemy with these things, you could probably buy them! And the guy in the film seemed to have a box of them. "Hey enemy guys! How about a million dollars to switch side?"
It's a million to one chance, but it might just work! 💸💸💸
It might've costed 10s or 100s of millions to develop and research and not many people want them so each unit has to be very costly to pay for the development costs. I guess that's why they're so expensive
@@frommarkham424 what?? they ALREADY EXIST! They aren't new, nothing about them is new, the software would be specific to the forces, but other than that... 100s millions of development? Not a chance.
I got a drone from Costco that was $39. It flies very well and can take very nice videos.
195K for one or 195k for 5,000 Costco drones.
For 190k you could get 390 DJI Mini 2 swarming around your enemies. 😀
I was thinking the same thing ... and even with one Mini 2 you might not be able to say "hold my beer", but at least you could say "hold my tax return".
the thing is, a lot of military technologies is not as advance anymore. people are smart these days. take a small team of people they can pretty much make anything military has. the only thing they cant produce is like aircraft and naval since those thing do cost too much.
for 20min ...
Woah did not expect to see you here Igor!
Do you not see the obvious advantages this has over a big ass dji??? Come on. I keep seeing the same kind of comment. Its like none of you watched the video at all and just came to run your mouths...
"Powered by very small rechargeable battery DeSigNeD to rotate both horizontal and vertical rotors" - WOOOW, such a unique design! Rechargeable? Amazing! Both rotors at the same time? Impossibly advanced! Definitely worth 200K!
Tell me that the battery lasts at least 1 week, and I will be surprised
DJI mini 3 is far advanced than this but available at much cheaper retail price of 500$. Literally 400 times cheaper wrt retail price..
Mini 3 can shoot 4L HDR CMOS optical zoom 4X. Withstand 40 kmph wind speed. Battery life upto 50 minutes compared to 25 minutes here. Transmission length of video is 10 km compared to 1 km here. So much more.
Only big thing about this is it's big price and Max profits. And it looks like mini helicopterer. Perhaps that choice was used to impress some old major general who thought it was impressive to look
Lmao it makes more sound than DJI mini 2 and 3. In every way it's worse than DJI
@@amit4Bihar nah its far less advanced but sure keep dreaming
stunning
It has amazing capabilities considering its size (3 cameras, including FLIR and night vision is impressive) but the price is ridiculous. I'd be surprised if it costs the company more than 5% of what they sell it for. But it's taxpayers money so nobody cares.
The FLIR camera's probably most of it. Those things are freaking expensive even in consumer applications. That said, yeah, that's insanely pricey for what it is.
As a voted and ordained Secretary representing our Veterans and Community... I CARE. Been in pro RC since 1987. And I agree with your financial assessment. Btw taxpayer money is less than .2% of the budget. And YES. We ALL care. Cool factoid. I built my first mechanical flying bird when I was 6 yo. Thanks dad. Then became a fan of Futaba and Airtronics. Ancient RC now.... Gosh what would happen if you integrated satellite GPS? And better digital optics with micro servo technology. Like a tootsie pop, the world will never know....
I bet the large cost is just due to the night vision.
FLIR, custom silicon, military encryption, jamming countermeasures, rugged handheld unit, military certification, limited production runs, and to top it all off, the company also wants to make a profit. it all adds up.
@@protonjinx Yes, and then don't even start on the drone itself. A DJI drone is about 20x the weight, bigger footprint which means more noise...
I build fpv drones and just built one which is 3" diagonally, although its a Quadcopter it still weights 97g and cost me $200 to build (just the drone itself, transmitter cost and fpv goggles not included). And yea it pretty much can do 2.5+km
Cool 😎
companies ripping off Uncle Sam which is essentially all taxpayers at the end of the day.... just the way biotech/pharmas and health insurance companies are doing also. Then people wonder how the US deficit got so high.
Taking build requests? I’d love one like this that’s small and just able to use with fpv goggles
Yes, but you didn’t need to worry about things like encrypting the signal (to military standards) to prevent a hostile takeover of your device by the enemy - and other concerns that equipment on a battlefield must have to survive and be useful.
That’s like comparing a go-cart to a police car. They operate in very different environments.
Back in high school I joined a science program in Australia and the military also visited, they showed us the drones and explained everything in detail, I had one in my hand and also the control panel and everything, it’s truly amazing. But I’m quite sure it’s not that expensive. I remember being shocked at how expensive the carbon rotors were, I think it was over a thousand dollars or so. But no way does that cost 200k, never ever, I would’ve remembered that.
It's not the mechanical parts that drive the cost up. It's the software and the custom computing hardware.
You have to add in the dealer mark up and inflation! And no trade in!
The price is the “palm greasing” you gotta do to get this contract in the first place. Everyone is completely corrupt.
Anything that is government supported gets market up massively because the manufacturers & service providers know that the government can waste & print taxpayer money endlessly. This is how the system is.
What about the kickbacks to the decison makers?
The only remarkable feature of this item is it's price-tag. Any cheap hobby helo or quad can be simply modified to extend operational range by GPS or operate within 1000M line of sight.
Not to mention the video keeps repeating the same obvious advantages of a tiny drone for 8 minutes comparing it to huge drones instead of comparing it to consumer drones.
@@kyrodes I couldn't watch the whole thing. Just kept repeating..
Reading the comments made me smile. I was scared if I said anything I'd immediately get the words tinfoil-hat thrown in my face. I have a drone roughly the size of a Canadian $1 coin that was part of the toy line for one of the Spider-Man movies a few years back no way home or far from home I forget which one. They were at Walmart roughly 20 or $30. The thing is so tiny it'll fit in the middle of the palm of your hand has four little propeller blades on it Waze virtually nothing I forget if the charge time is 10 or 20 minutes it has a camera on it which takes an SD card and can be synced up with your cell phone and controlled with your cell phone and likewise your cell phone can connect with the camera on the Drone if I understand how it works correctly. The one that I have I've never tried to charge it and use it ironically got it in a box of stuff that somebody threw out until I seen it I didn't realize they were that small and readily available. It's actually smaller than this drone ironically and the same principle. The Drone itself is actually not expensive if anybody is wondering it's that damn unit that they're using to control it and the charger that are expensive. The unit they're using to operate at ironically is nearly identical to something I have I have 5 Windows 7 military issue tablets when they come out for the military they were insanely expensive and eventually ended up going on The Chopping Block we're a bunch of them were bought by a garbage collection company and used by that company I grabbed a handful of them where somebody had ended up with them and lifted them on eBay I think I paid $20 each where the guy didn't realize what they were. There's basically almost no information on the damn things had a hell of a job to eventually find one with the original version of Windows 7 on it so I could get the drivers to redo the others. The ones that I got and originally somebody had installed a version of Linux that had gone bad. They run some weird version of Windows 7 simply doing a Windows reinstallation doesn't give you most of the drivers amd i couldn't find Wagner all about them on TH-cam or anywhere is to get information.. Usually they go for a round 200 each untested on eBay LOL. The ones that I got I paid 10 and $20 each where people didn't realize they were valuable and listed them cheaply. Been trying to find out where to get replacement charge volt battery packs. They're pretty much identical to the unit they show and the video operating the Drone if I remember correctly they were about 5 or 10 grand a piece when they came out new they kind of look like the Pep Boy that you see in Fallout. Quite a neat little unit. They've got Bluetooth Wi-Fi and so on. I don't think it's the Drone itself that's expensive I think it's the handheld unit that they're operating it with.
@@peterparker6584 the drone itself is probably *also* stupidly expensive, to be fair, but those ruggidized military tablets are the real price tag when they're new. Pretty darn durable, though, so there's that at least.
The price tag on the actual drones themselves probably comes from A) the FLIR sensor on them, which even in the comsumer space is a few grand for something decent. B) the higher-grade GPS receiver they get rather then what a simple Recall/Find Home type you'd get on another commercial quad, C) Specialized battery chemistry to withstand abuse you wouldn't do to a DJI.
That said, they probably cost less then $10k to make even accounting for small order numbers on specific parts which all require individual DOD approval because that's how militaries work.
@@DFX2KX I'd expect the software and the customized computing hardware in them to add significantly more to the cost than any other hardware part. You can spread that cost over millions of pieces, and testing and other quality assurance requirements aren't nearly as expensive to fulfil, for something like smart TVs or smart watches. When you can only expect to sell a few thousand pieces, that cost goes up a thousand times.
or just ask the enemy squad if they surrender for 5 000 $ each
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 lol
Um,, yea! that is not a bad idea actualy. What does the soal of a I.S. solder cost these days? I mean we are spending millions to suvey them across the globe.
🤣🤣🤣👌🏻👌🏻😝
good one 🤣
That woukld have been a short iraqi war.
Soldier:
Flying it into the building
Enemy: slap it to the ground with left hands and now know the enemy is close
You know enemy is “close”, but now they know your exact location
As someone who operates from the drone industry. I can tell you that this thing is no more than a big fat joke.. Single rotor uav's are extremely hampered by wind and other elements. This thing would topple over in less than a 10mph wind and become useless. That paired with the minimal flight time and flight control system make this thing nothing more than a high dollar paper weight.
Spin the blades faster in high wind derp
@@andrewb5894 yea true derp moment for you... get some experience and come back in 10 years kiddo
It wouldn't even make a good paperweight at the claimed 19 grams.
It might have AI balancing technology. Idk but I know the military isn’t stupid.
@@J3R3MI6 it's called a flight controller and even if it does, the single rotor still makes it useless.. "The military isn't stupid".... I suggest you do some reading my friend. Start with - Waste, Greed, and Fraud: The Business that Makes the World’s Greatest Army
A small drone seems like a good idea, but ask anyone into RC aircraft what its like trying to pilot a tiny drone in the wind.
That's why i think you should not pilot these type of drones but just point them towards where you want them and they on their own should be able to move there. So at that price they better come with some top notch software and additional sensors i presume.
@Tesla cult: Exactly. My neighbour just 100 metres away asked me I had found his child's toy helicopter (one of those 4 inch tiny toys), It had disappeared in a mild breeze towards my house. Ten years later I found it on my porch roof and returned it, albeit in pretty bad shape. Edit: i have a cheap chinese RC helicopter that can handle a slight breeze, came fitted with a camera that can take video and stills. Drawback is that all the data needs to be put onto a PC to be seen. This is an easy and cheap thing to fix for live video for soldiers...and mine has a range of about 1km.
Exactly. I have 2 one super cheap and the other a bit more expensive and the slightest breeze will ground them both. I could see this one doing well in an indoor environment though.
Yeah flying in wind definalty sucks... at that point u just hope that your gyro is good enough to keep it up...
This is a perfect example of capability that a military model might have (extremely fast software running thrust vectoring... plus whatever else it would need to defeat the wind) that you would NEVER see in a consumer drone.
I remember reading about intense competition by a number of developers in Silicon Valley who were pushing the limits of drone miniaturization. They had already pushed it pretty far. They were getting down to the size of small bugs, like flies, ants and fleas. New developments and progress were moving along rapidly.
That was way back in the 1980s. I can't even imagine what they must have developed by now.
Microscopic
Absolute BULLSHIT! Name of the program? Just Googled your statement and you are SO FULL of it!
Bullshit.
They make you a cup of coffee now!
But u need another drone for cream
n sugar... 🤓
@@stewiepid4385 are you telling me you are too stupid to operate Google? Within seconds I learned that the CIA developed dragonfly (MUAVs) IN 1970!
A friend of mine in the US military got to use one of these and what puts this drone above the rest is the optics in such a small package. He says the optics are insane, especially the night vision.
So the updated versions include night vision too? What about IR? Both of those features wouldn't be so hard to include with todays technology. Maybe the price could be adjusted down a bit too.
Except for the size, a $1000 DJI Mavic seems just as capable with more range.
This thing is also extremely quiet. Is the hardware worth the price? Highly doubt it, but I don't think there is any kind of consumer grade drone that is as capable as this system in a warfare environment. Anything DJI makes would give away your position the moment you launched it.
@@Inertia888 I would have to disagree with your opinion on the sound, I fly both Copters and Quads, the sound comes from the motors and the air being disturbed by the prop(s), Quads make more sound because there's more of them, my Copters are a lower frequency because of the larger diameter Prop needed for lift, but they are easily heard 100 ft away. Note that NO VIDEO exists of the Drone flying with ambient sound... also the official Teledyne Website DOESN'T disclose Sound Signature it only says "Best in Class" you must write them to obtain that info.
@@Timinator62 Size makes a difference in its functional detectability though. It might make some noise, but because it's so tiny, it may still remain hidden for a while, especially in the dark. And that's assuming it's a dead silent environment to begin with. If there's heavy machinery operating nearby or aircraft taking off and landing, this could probably go completely unnoticed.
Is "FLIR" not enough written on your screen during the whole video to look it up on the internet and understand why just no?
@@tastyham Yeah so? I have a WiFi 4K Camera with IR that I took out of a $35.00 Security Camera on one of my mini Drones complete with 360 degree rotation.
Glad YOU love the Government spending YOUR money.
These specs were mind boggling 14 years ago when doing R&D on this. The Mavic Mini was released 8 years later... an eternity in technology.
And problem whit DJI Mavic Mini is "made in China" Russia already using technology to try take out Ukrainian drone operators.. they can "see" where you take of/land and use artillery. for military then it cant been made in china..
They have technology to track this heli in china, don't fly this in china
There will be a copycat we can afford to for our kids.
@@johanandersson2165 so can this one using a universal frequency scanner
@@nazahelbrum3318 Yes whit a directional antenna & scanner you can detect most things and in what direction but not exactly. been doing similar whit radio amateurs "Fox hunting" its a lot of running around, now try same things if they use military grade "frequency hopping" and Encryption.. its radio waves everywhere and witch one do you want to target? you can'y see what its does Encrypted and you'll don't know where because its mostly just static noise.
This looks like a little toy my son got at a gas station
All seriousness though, it looks like an amazing tool, but that price point feels *insane*
Still, I guess that trillion dollar military budget has to go somewhere, and it sure isn't salaries for enlisted soldiers xD
Maybe it can fire little missiles or has a tiny particle beam weapon in it. 😅😂😂
The Drone itself is probably worth about $75... the rest would be the ai, encrypted data link, cameras, control equipment, and the night vision etc.
Its taxpayers money. Even if it costed $200 million, your tyrannical government would still happily buy it.
@@kekistaniattackhelicopter2242 You ever want to get mad look up the Sergeant York SPAAG debacle
And at considerable cost savings to you the consumer , plus a set of steak knives
Just saw a video on the Reaper drone and now this Black Hornet drone too... drones get all the badass names
DoD contractors know how to work the contracting system very well.
Well duh thats what happens when you have and infinity budged paid with someone elses money. Like 330,000,000 taxed peasants. At 1$ a pop you got a free cool $330 million. Now 1$ a pop every week x 330 million. Thats $18.5 billion. Or 94,769 air hogs.. what does the DOD care how much they cost, they dont pay for them. Just like all the equipemt, arms, and tech they leave over seas. Rember folks... WAR IS A HIGHLY LUCRATIVE FOR MAJOR PROFIT BUSINESSES. PROFITABLE FOR EVERYONE BUT THE COMMON FOLK IT DESTROYS.
@@Ksshortyb And the crazy part is that the tax money doesn't come close to paying for what we spend. Most of it is just printed and deficit spent. Someday the hosue of cards will collapse, but until then, connected rich people are going to keep getting rich as hell off absurd contracts.
It's called greasing the wheels. I agree, they are experts at it.
This thing was developed in 2012. That means it's prehistoric in drone-years and completely obsolete imo.
Who knows the shit they have now. I killed a mosquito the other day and it burst into flames after hitting the floor.
I’m starting to think it weren’t no mosquito…
@@ConfusedGeriatric LMFAO
Spot on.. We used to have to wait months for products or updates, now it's hard to keep up with the advancing software, tunes and flight controllers.
In consumer drone years, yes. In terms of (custom) chip manufacturing, not a lot changed. Electric motors, carbon fiber frames etc. have been around forever.
@@felix-dk9tr LOL.. You're a funny guy!
Being so small I can’t imagine you’d be able to fly it during light windy days, let alone really windy days.
Don't you know? Wars are only fought on non-windy days!
what about rainy days, snowy days, and normal nights?
@@JoeBlankenfeld we don't fight in no wind!
Of course it can, just look at small insects like bees, dragonflies etc
@@juicejordan06 have you ever flown a drone that small. It is even suggested to not fly in wind. Small winds alone can make flying them hard. That’s why they are suggested for indoor. Plus being small those things are loud once the blades get going.There’s no way those things are useful. And you’re comparing an insect which is built by Mother Nature to fly with tiny wings. Just because we can fly planes like a bird doesn’t mean we possess the same agility of a bird.
I would be more likely to believe that a $195,000 'unit' would consist of a working system with everything you need to make it work as shown here with perhaps 8 of those flying camera drones that pop up for use. The video portends that each of those little drones are $195k and I can't believe that.
200 000 is the cost of developpement of this shit, the rest is corruption
I’d like to see these units fly in strong winds and wet conditions.
They can’t, and they won’t.
Yea cause those desert wars sure are wet and windy
@@RealNaisuCinema deserts aren’t windy?
@@alphabeets if it gets windy there’s a sandstorm in which more than just the drone would be useless. How well can you see with sand blowing in your eyes?
@@alphabeets to answer your question there’s not much wind in the desert lol maybe a light breeze if you get lucky
Somebody is getting a serious kickbacks for this
$195,000 for that?! I can believe it. When I worked at the Marine Corps logistics base (MCLB) Yermo Annex in Barstow Ca, in the tactical radar and navigation systems dept, I needed to replace a 19 pin computer terminal cover or "block". The vendor I ordered the part from charged the Base $2,000 for the small plastic part...that's just wrong yo!
MCLB ALBANY GA here, yeah the waste and over pricing of certain things over the last 15 years is mind boggling to say the least.
@@jmathews470 yeah I guess we've both seen it first hand. Incredible indeed!
@@blakjack3053 yep and the majority of taxpayers are clueless.
@@blakjack3053 do you remember the defense contractor AeCom? They are the ones who were charging the marine corps like 2500$ for a bolt, 3700 for a mirror ect...back in 2005 or so.
@@jmathews470 I don't recall but we were dealing vendors that were frickin thieves!
What people are missing here, regarding price, is the available sensor & battery options. There are sensor types that contain pure unobtainium to detect otherwise impossible things as well as batteries that are generations ahead of what's in your latest phone. Take a $500 FLiR camera for example. Hardly useful at 240x320. These have a full HD IR resolution that is zoomable. Custom variable spread spectrum digital transmission and control protocols etc. Try using your smart phone 100 feet inside a granite cliff. Yeah, exactly.
A DJI drone for a tiny fraction of the cost is 4K video.
Impressed with how many words you’ve used for telling us ‘it has a camera’
Seems a bit expensive, even for our military budget. I can see how it could be very useful though. The open rotors give me some pause as they can be a vulnerability in tight spaces should it accidentally strike something.
Price point, for sure. It's a huge mark-up. But we don't know what sensors are in it. It would not surprise me if it has some proximity sensor, can sense when it is too close to an object. I have been paying attention to this thing for years now, and I can only hope that one day before I die, I will be able to learn what the electronics and sensor layout is.
@@Inertia888
I guess you're avoiding buying one to take it apart and look inside...
I think it is a price per kit, not single drone. Also micro sensors are probably expensive af
@@DartTyler lol micro sensors aren't that expensive. 6 year year old is working on projects using arduino and micro sensors. Believe me this mini drone shown in the video is nothing more than wasting of tax payer money
More like astronomically expensive
The price must be an initial outlay for the first shipment which usually includes rolled-in RnD costs and production start-up. If that is actually the cost of the unit according to material and production costs alone, then not all of the money is actually going to the drone. Wonder what else is getting funded? This is starting to sound like a $5000 screwdriver.
The cost also includes its battery, controls, encrypted data link, ai, patent, night vision, armor etc
@@vyros.3234 Ah! So all the money is going to the lawyers!
Yeah that makes sense. They showed a clip if the base charger hub and it looked like they dock themselves almost
@@Thisisnttravis The price is still a minimum of 10 to 1000 times what it should be.
Politicians bank accounts is what gets funded.
You will shocked with the fact that this drone has a mini nuclear reactor in his core which gives it so much power for a long time
Source - Trust me bro 😂😂😂
I was expecting the cost of a average car but 200k?! For that much, it better find it's target then expand into a full size helicopter and crushes the enemy.
Yeah,, Like Antman!
25 minutes battery. If they told me 1 week, at least, I might have been surprised.
Big may not always mean better. Small drones definitely have its advantages! Take the Mini 2 for example, it's size makes it the most travel-friendly drone compared to all other camera drones.
sure. a small breeze and your mini 2 is gone
Less than 4 inches should be good enough for anybody.
Is that a sponsored message?
My mini ia good in a little wind. I mean, i can use it at the beach fine. Carrying case is about the size of a pistol case. My gues is it goes maybe 25mph.
The reaper is only used for personal recon. does it use AI tracking? It should cost ablut $500 tops. Way overpriced, thsts crazy
Yea surveillance equipment from a Chinese brand, that can be forced to hand over data to the government, that is just the right choice for the armed forces lol!
Last time (as in a year ago) it was an $80,000 drone with the exact same capabilities as this one that is now over double the price. The capabilities of this drone are still that of a sub $500 drone I can buy on the internet right now.
That's inflation for ya.
Thats true, I remember seeing videos on it. Hasn't changed at all but doubled in price. Gotta live that government spending.
@@1pcfred no, thats just typical wasteful government spending, inflation at 9% doesnt justify this drone more than doubling in price. I bet India doesn't pay that much for theirs.
@@torresalxndr 9% is just a made up number. I can tell you right now I'm paying a lot more than more than 9% for everything.
with flir and nightvision?
These things will not last very long but if you are behind a wall or in a trench and need to see where the enemy is so you can make plans of attack, they will do exactly what you need them to do for as long as you need them to do it. After the battle is over, if it was not brought back before the battle starts, if its location is tracked when used, it can be recovered and reused if not destroyed during the battle.
We don't have "battles" Luke that anymore lol it's 2023 we have robots
Kind of cool, and maybe a great way to help finding combatants and civilians hiding in a warzone that troops may need to enter. But, with all the info in this video being public, knowing the battery capacity and flight times, it wouldn't be to tough, if you spotted the drone, to know you have incoming people withing a certain radius
I guess this means that if somebody starts making such drones for under 5K, they will have huge success.
Regardless, at 16grams of weight and being so small, it looks to be useless with a moderate breeze.
Yeah I agree with the stability issues, I have a bunch of "Drones" some small and some 2ft., I also have Helicopters some small JUST LIKE this, and the Helicopter is drastically effected by wind, a slight breeze blows it all over, the Prop spins so fast that it's actually like a Disk when the wind blows on it, tilt the prop toward the wind and 'Copter gets forced down, get the wind under the prop and the 'Copter wants to gain altitude and roll over, even with gyros to help stabilize. The Multi Rotors don't have this problem until the winds get to about 6 Knots.
Breeze problem I would hope for quarter million dollars the damn thing would fly. Oh well
It's for when they start killing people in the cities who don't comply. They have been already training for that type of warfare. It's not that windy in most cities
@@budkopach3163
Absolutely, it’s for use against United States citizens who don’t comply with the authority of the world economic forum.
And thanks to two engineers who worked on the development of this fabulous drone, you can have that Military technology not for half the price, not even a third, you can get it for $99.99 plus shipping.
After China steals the IP and counterfeits it.
@@FlyingHighInAC soooooo the thing is they probably produce most of this in China anyway and then upcharge the military by several thousand times
@@FlyingHighInAC they will stamp it out of plastic for 50 cents then do free shipping.
That's highway robbery 195000... insane
Comparing the hornet drone to Reaper drone is like comparing a boat with a cargo ship, yes they both are used for tranport but the scale is very different, and so the price comparison is also not relevant. They don't replace each other, they have their own use cases.
We had quite a few of these in my platoon in Afghanistan. My operators flew them ahead of our dismount to give us a birdseye view of whats behind walls and beyond the next house.
20 year pointless war that didn't benefit a single taxpayer. More of a training ground on how to drone bomb civilians. In the end, the Taliban was victorious & took control of billions in US weaponry.
No doubt t useful, glad your boys got to use those.
But the Ukraine conflict is completely different
This is a non contact style of War where distance Drones and long range missiles are important
There’s absolutely no justification for that cost
Maybe not but I bet you would pay that to save a loved one.
@@jjw6342 that's right, instead of being wasted on this all that tax payer money embezzled by defence contractors could be used for cancer treatments or surgeries for people who can't afford it.
@@jjw6342 a loved ones life costs the government more than 195k. just 1
Thank you Mr. Chairman for your view
195,000= 1k actual unit cost, 194k black operation expenses.
If anybody's flown remote control helicopters you know this is too small to fly outside without the wind taking it, it's too light.
It's a problem, but if insects can manage it, it probably isn't insurmountable....
Insects go where the wind blows them, then just go about their business wherever. Or do you imagine a beetle or butterfly will go exactly to a pre-determined point in even moderately strong gusts of wind?
@@stephanuhu963 Monarch butterflies all fly over 3,000 miles to Mexico every year. They are definitely affected by the weather as are jumbo jets, but I'm not sure how you can conclude that they "go where the wind blows them." That's nonsense....The insects obviously can't defeat hurricane winds, but then again neither can we. Is that the goal? I think there are more intelligent ways, and to be honest more realistic, and efficient ways to fool the enemy....My point is that if a honey bee can do it...so can we.
u ever been to the desert?
195000$for 16grams one of the most expensive things on earth
Still pales to Ink Jet Ink
Life insurance on soldiers in combat is 200k
Save 1 life pays for itself
How many lives have the Black Hornet saved so far? It has so many more functions in addition to be invisible for enemies troops, and armies are willing to keep it in their deposits.
Just a few years ago, the navy had a $38,000 hand held controller break, so they started using Xbox 360 controllers.
It won’t be long, these expensive drones will be replaced by off the shelf consumer electronics.
Ask yourself: who pays the bill? It’s you, your kids and grandkids when they pay their taxes.
First thing it does is allow the owner to feel buyers remorse!
I'd still end up driving it right into a ceiling fan. I'd try to recover it on the rebound and would end up crashing it into the nearest toilet. $195,000 or $19 at the mall, mine would be broken within 15 seconds of putting in the batteries.
Lol too right
'Cuz you buy military-custom Norwegian drones for $20 at the mall.
@@dominicdelprincipe2583 Reading comprehension just isn't your thing, is it?
@@shoechew Thanks for the compliment!
As kids we used to fantasise about things like bug sized drones. What an amazing technology 👏
we dreamed about furbys and wrestling figures. if you were a kid dreaming about drones, u have no clue how amazing the tech really is
Sorry but the price tag is and will forever remain UNJUSTIFIABLE
All I know this tiny drone can suck military budget very well. Good job! You need as much as more of this things. Make it for every marine squad.
I would love to see the stuff they are working on today!
I bet they have swarms of tiny little drones that are able to send data between one another.
Imagine a swarm of tiny drones, all filled with some high explosive, all able to "see" though each other's
cameras & sensors, and send all of that data back to central command.
1 death costs us more than 195k
I think a lot of the cost would go into the software to run the thing, they didn't go too indepth with the features on the software side but it would have to be capable of secure communication back to its terminal preferably without being able to trace, if it used the standard radio frequency control system with most drones the enemy would be able to pinpoint exactly where it was being controlled from. I'm also curious to know how it would hold up with a light breeze, light might be good sometimes but not in all weather conditions.
@@destinyjamcookie You sure? It can be GPS guided. You don't need that to look over a wall.
Answer to the title: Put us even further in debt
I do know the military needs good equipment but I am certain much of it is vastly overpriced.
Yes indeed, it's a ridiculous price for something so close to a toy regardless of anything. No bullshit about "extra rugged", "water proof" or anything can convince me that 195 000 USD is anything near a reasonable price for this. I actually doubt that the cost is so high.
@@skunkjobb at one point there was tactical use for silly string so to make it military grade they made it over$100 a can with no marked improvements
reasons for being the number 1 economy. be quiet and take an economics course u dweeb
US$195,000
Although the Army was seeking a mini-drone for use by individual squads through the Soldier Borne Sensors (SBS) program, the individually handmade Black Hornet was seen as too expensive for large-scale deployment, with a unit costing as much as US$195,000.
They will be $9.99 at Walmart by 2023...........$195 000 it would have to vacuum my house and finish me off every night after walking the dog and picking up my groceries..
They need an auto deployment version that automatically finds enemy weapon noises gets close and reports enemy locations to the squad and commanders. Then we wouldn't have to try and argue for fire support by guessing how big the fighting force is. Maybe have a pilot at base but ground troops deploy and maintain them.
Wow! Only $195k?! What a bargain! That's only 487 times the amount I paid for my DJI drone. All I need to do is sell my house, car, belongings, kidney, and blood plasma to afford one. I'm contacting a realtor and a drug-addicted back alley surgeon today!
Do you mean you bought a craps?
Ok… you lost me at $195k… 😳
Curious about the sound levels of this thing , most civilian drones you hear coming a mile away
too loud
No Sound.. that makes it more expensive
I wonder how fast "stormy winds" are exactly. I wonder what happens to the max 25 minutes fly time in "stormy winds". I don't put my Mini 2 up in anything over 11 mph winds because it gets a little stressful. I'd still love to play around with one of these.
that'll be only 195K usd
@@hukutoca Its the way they can tell are spending in army at least 2% of GDP
Charging $195k should be laughed at.
Paying $195k should be prosecuted.
.
Geezus for 195k that drone better be made out of gold... I can 3D print a mini drone of the same size that can do the same crap for 65 bucks and mine has a 45 minute flight time with a rechargeable battery.
Where are you Thomas , I need one of those?
The drone definitely doesn't justify the price, even closely but after seeing this video I researched a bit and found that this drone has some good features not mentioned in this video like:
- 20 min flight time ( go search on market a similar size drone for this much flight time, even a FPV drone has a 3 to 4 min max time)
- can't even hear its presence beyond 3 mtrs (people saying to either buy DJI mavic or something else, I have one question: Have you even heard how loud they are?)
- delivers 720p footage with negligible latency and flight distance of 2km distance (That is impressive but this resolution drops may drop to 320p)
- also has multiple features just like your commercial drones ( like GPS assisted stabilization, etc)
I had to find this information just for the people asking to buy either buy DJI drone or similar commercial drones for military. Guys understand that during war stealth is most important and this features help to save the life of our soldiers. So may nations have utilized this UAV in their military. But still it's price is still expensive. Limited manufacturing can be a driving point probably.
In concept, it's quite interesting. The functions it's capable of, but they're not saying, are probably even more interesting, and frightening.
It is amusing how they frame it up as a cost savings though. I'm sure there is more then one gov't official (technically not) financially connected to the manufacturer.
195.000 $. a 2 - 500 $ drone from Aliexpress would probably do the same job..
By now I thought it would be available on Amazon for under $100. Great for camping or doing areal obstacle races with friends.
it is
I’ve been in the UAS industry as a professional consultant for civilian unmanned aircraft systems for the military ie: VT Group, Invictus technical solutions etc. As usual this is extremely overpriced and like someone said a DJI product can perform just as many of these functions if not more with better resolution video etc. but it’s all about politics and who’s nuts you rub to get your equipment into the hands of military contractors. A system I used to sell called the IT 180 coaxial UAS can fly for four hours, has insanely high resolution pan tilt systems with laser designators, thermal hd cameras and high zoom etc you can call in missile strikes Using the laser designator to paint targets it can be flown through microwave, satellite and other forms of technology allowing it to be operated from out of the area.. that system is $240,000 and does 90,000% more things than this thing could. The size of this little copter is great but when you miniature systems they become more susceptible to damage, lack payload capacity, Abilities to upscale product enhancements, You lose flight time and end up being pushed around in the air by wind. the size is honestly the only thing I thinks great but one accidental step on that product and you just gave away $195,000 of non-repairable UAV system. Check out the Prioria maverick hand launched UAS system that looks like a bird it is extremely lightweight and honestly makes more sense because it has longer flight times swappable camera payloads etc. The tall platforms are great but they lack long flight times which is critical no one wants to land in the middle of a major mission because your batteries are dead
$195K and a $20 house fan will keep it out. Thing is too small to navigate and stay stable in a 5MPH breeze
u ever been to the desert?
this thing would be overpriced at $2500! do not be fooled, there’s nothing inherently special about this drone that justifies a 195K price tag.
Incredulous much?
Prove it
Yeah, try flying one in heavy wind and you will know how useless it will be. All RC planes people know that. Tiny does not mean better in all cases.
Interesting video! One of these video systems on every traffic light controlled, intersection, and no more excuses for bad accidents. Also the demand for micro chips just went way up!
If so... how much does it cost, it's not a matter of concern..
If it's extremely light, it means that can not afford the weather changes.. otherwise it's not a fatal weapon.. If it's perfect for spy. Satellites doing the missions already.
Duck hunters from the southern U.S. are used to 10 gauge shotguns, blasting steel shot loads, through a full choke. Dare them they can't shoot them down and see what happens, lol.
It can save well trained and experienced personnel, thats what it can do!
someone gets it.
but what can this do that my 900$ dji drone cant? i bet it cant go as far or as fast or as long or move its camera
@@bjork5178 did you listen to the whole video? i'm not into drones but the difference in specs likely speaks for itself.
I suppose this little thing can only be used in ideal environment. No wind, cozy temperature, etc. Would be good to know its tech specs.
If they are releasing a video telling the entire world all about this, image what they actually have that is top secret.
Yup. This is a 15 year old technology
I believe each SWAT TEAM should have one to help out any dangerous situation they can confront,,,🤔 don't you think ??
Not sure thats a correct cost estimate.
The manufacturer gets a deal with the military, that total price includes everything from training, licenses, chargers, controllers, mobile screens, support and long-term warranties.
Also night vision integration is not cheap, implementing compatibility with datalink is also not something comerial drones have.
Think some just takes the total price and divides it on the number of drones, which would get you a wrong unit cost.
Don't get me wrong, its not cheap regardless.
Also, 15-30 mph wind, battery life will drop like rock.
And I bet the cold makes the battery drop even faster
"for just $195,000" lol. The two drones and base station is a 10k system tops.
It’s expensive because micro tech is still advancing, smaller parts with more power so the smaller it gets the more it will cost
195k must be the contractor's special price. It goes well with the $20 bagels to eat and the $100 generic pens to write down all your important notes on your $50 all weather paper.
sucks not being american, i bet
@@skeletor716 I wouldn't know
@@MrErgenta do u know how well ur economy is doing and why?
@@skeletor716 Are you not American?
Thank you for the video. There are many small drones as good or better than this at a much smaller cost. Who gets a commission for buying them for the military, and who gets money for advising the use?
Politicians.
Yes, I believe it's definitely possible to fit a tiny hand-sized drone with thermal imaging camera.
There are drones fitted with relatively small TIC(s) for commercial applications, it's only a matter of time.
The fact that is does not have thermal and for that amount of money is nuts. FLIR has a similar one with infrared built in so more reliable
So much better than packing around that old Raven all day 😂😂
This drone is wierdly awesome.
Also, I would recommend you to look up the garuda drone. It's a drone that looks like an eagle and was made and used by India ...
@@سيف-ر4ل
I did follow him. The nonsense he spoke made my head spin. 0/10 do not recommend him.
Garuda drone.
Bhai Konsa drone wo picture wala drone to ni Bolra??
Link dena.
I guess being that small, it probably won't be too good through windy conditions.
When I was in the Navy, the bolts for our helicopters cost $2000. Military pricing is crazy
Pretty sure you don't want a bolt to fail in that thing
@@funkblack That's how shadow operations are funded :D
it takes a lot of $130 screwdrivers to make a UFO
@@funkblackExactly. Thank you.
@@funkblackYou dont want a bolt to fail on a bridge either and they arent using "super special secret magic military bolts!!!" and they arent using $2000 bolts either.
The notion that anything close to a significant portion of the markup on military products is due to an increase in actual product quality is laughable.
Ask anyone who's been in the military, especially people who have also done engineering work outside the military.
Made by a pharmaceutical company? Nobody else can charge 400 times what it really costs.
What would be really impressive is noise cancelling of the sound(s) the propellers make. It’s very possible to do so. They could make it near silent.
it also can lower a hook by a string to catch fish
You can also use any video editor you have to simply mute the volume after transferring it to your computer. Add your own narration, music, etc..
Based on personal experience flying VERY small quads, anything over a mild breeze will ground them, which I think would make them a very limited use item. I wonder how many they have lost due to that fact alone.
This comment should be pinned. Most of the other people here are talking without any drone building/flying experience
Doesn't this thing get blown all over in the wind? I've messed around with miniature helicopters and they don't do very well outside with any kind of wind and the flight time isn't much more than a few minutes. I picture this being more useful in buildings provided there are no windows open and no air coming out of any vents.
Lots to say about the price, but if this thing is superior to its competition and keeps your troops safe, it is still worth it. It's a simple matter of demand and supply. But there might be room for better offers. Europe is buying!
I understand how these systems windup being so expensive as the developer has to address a seemly endless array of "must have" requirements. It seems reasonable the Intelligence gained by these systems is often very perishable and must be acted on very quickly. This makes systems like the Black Hornet invaluable if not affordable.
agreed. I would wager > 3/4 of the comment section have never done business with or been in the military to understand the stringent requirements. I would also wager that same percentage have never been a part of any serious engineering development. Data feeds, security, resilience, and a myriad of other factors will skyrocket the cost.
Sunk cost i understand, but to the point of $195k, EACH?!
There's over 12,000 produced. The manufacturer is milking this one badly.
Seriously, the material + manufacturing cost of this thing is a few hundred dollars max, if even. Sounds more like someone has to break even on the bribes (consultation fee) that's been paid.
@@cwr8618 someone is definitely embezzling tall the money