[XorNot]

War is the definition of "not cheap" because the stakes are so high (you die). Ukraine is building what it can with anything it can get and also in a constant race to adapt and develop superior designs.

You're not seeing "cheaper": you're seeing a literal arms race.

[glitchdout]

Your sentences do not agree with each other.

"building what it can with anything it can get" is the definition of cheaper.

If it was easier or cheaper to create a multi-purpose robot to control vehicles and deliver bombs that's what we'd see Ukraine doing.

[XorNot]

No because Ukraine needs things right now. Cheap is a secondary requirement to survival.

So the reason you see a lot of drone designs is because they're constantly innovating to try and build something effective: which is not cheap. Then whatever they come up with, it's preferable to use it right now if you can: because it's available and delay may mean you no longer have it.

Cheap is that last step: if it works you production optimize it and try to get the cost down so it's sustainable. But while that's happening you're generally also back to innovating because the enemy is deploying counter measures.

And all of this is happening across multiple dimensions at once: if you can get a great bulk price from Alibaba for some part via an intermediary but it doesn't turn up on time, or an alternative is delivering faster or the warehouse for some part got hit last week then get, there's now a new drone design with that variant.

Hell a lot of the output is just because the small machine shop knows how to build some particular design and has the parts, but another does not.

Its war: the cash price of things is not the only price nor even necessarily the most important one.