[whynotmaybe]

Only if you're a nation with few resources or in emergency situation.

Creativity in the US military as always been associated with a lot of $ for contract with the private sectors.

Yes, many countries are now using cheap drones to destroy targets but I'm not sure the US military has the mentality to adapt to this situation because they're not "really" at war.

How would highly ranked personnel react to the idea of a 400$ drone, cheaper than an AR15, when they usually discuss budgets about aircraft carriers (or a few 100$million F35) ?

I wonder how many potential contractors would add a 0 to the price just to be taken seriously.

[wildzzz]

They'd just add a zero to the quantity to be delivered instead.

[jerlam]

Drones are bullets, not delivery systems like aircraft carriers and machine guns.

The US military already deploys a copy of the Iranian Shahed drone. They aren't $400 but the Shahed isn't that cheap either.

[wildzzz]

I would argue that drones are at least one level higher than a bullet, maybe something like a Carl Gustav round.