I know, that's why I said hundreds or thousands.
A jet powered suicide drone basically... even that would cost far more than $2000.
FYI, a standard 155 mm NATO HE shell costs about $500.
If you do mass production of the engine, Airframe, shape charged explosive your self NO it wouldn't! Even if you had to import the transmitter, receiver & all the electronics even if you base it on the components of an imported smartphone on a high end model it still wouldn't cost a penny over $2000 per unit!!!!!!!!
Your talking about a missile that's under 6ft long & less than 6 inches in diameter and under 5kg warhead preferably 4kg shape charged with 1kg of gunpowder and fragments so even if you place the Airframe off Carbon fiber rather than fiber glass & aluminum it still would NOT cost over $2000 per unit
And for the ground control of a high end model your looking at max $150K com's & electronics (about the same price as a Cell tower in the US) + $100K on a lightly armored mid size truck (ceramic + fiberglass or Kevlar) + 4 launchers so even on a larger longer range (100km) Higher payload (50-100lb) $20,000 version you can get the ground equipment + 10 Missiles with about the same price as an Artillery with 10 Shells (As long as it's not ground skimming & it's guided much like a UAV with semi autonomous terminal guidance (like the newer versions of Sadid)
At the high end would be equipping 1 out of 4 with components of a high end smart phone equipped with an extended WIFI antenna for wifi communication with the other 3 with the other 3 being semi autonomous
30km is not a lot of rang you can use a wide range of equipment for 2 way communication a lot cheaper and lighter than the ones Iran's Mohajer-4 uses
preferably future upgrades will be more autonomous with the ability to detect armed vehicle, tanks, helos,..... and in the future men armed with a gun or RPG
Building a small Turbojet Engine is really not that hard at all especially ones with 10-15 min life span
Engines on RC Jet engines are built to be reused you can use cheaper alloys for a 10-15min lifespan
Building a pulse Jet engine that uses diesel fuel is even simpler and cheaper
Building small electric fuel pumps is cheep and easy
These are hobbyist's using off the shelf equipment and they don't have the funding of a military industry and a country behind them & they are not mass producing & are using reusable airframe, engines,.....
A pulse jet engine version if mass produced won't even cost Iran $1000 per unit you can easily build the engine for $100
Jet engine version would be fast enough to hunt down Helo's
And on one mid size truck Iran can carry the equipment to launch 4 at time on a cheep version & you can launch 4 per min or spend a little more money for a rocket launched or a compressed air launched version launched at a faster pace from tubes or other types of launchers
You can build lighter but slower version powered by electric engines lunched using compressed air from a tube for low noise that can be lunched from tubes like mortars and can carry as much explosive as an RPG-7
This is the future! Heavy guns are the past! unguided mortars are the past! And yes infantry electronic warfare capability is increasing but so is autonomy that will render them useless
This is war with Moors Law in effect electronics are becoming so cheep that the cost of metal alone on larger equipment are just not worth going with outdated equipment like artillery! add to that the light weight factor of composites, solid state memory storage devices, CAD assisted tools, industrial robots & 3D printing!
I'm not saying Iran doesn't need artillery but the time spent, R&D funding spent, tools and equipment used & alloy's used should have gone towards lighter and far more high tech equipment than investing in a new Artillery especially if that artillery is not fully automated!
