Iran's indigenous UAVs

It comes down to survivability... if there is a good chance of the drone surviving then it makes sense to make it sophisticated and fast and powerful and loaded with weapons instead of the drone itself being a weapon.

Think of it in terms of getting bombs on target.

A drone is a useful alternative because modern bombers and modern precision guided bombs are expensive... a cheap simple drone makes sense, but if you already have those expensive bombers and with a modification are then able to use cheap dumb bombs with an accuracy and precision good enough so instead of dropping million dollar bombs you are dropping thousand dollar bombs then suddenly it becomes much harder to justify using a drone for that job because that bomber can carry self defence equipment and self defence weapons and would be much harder to deal with than a simple drone.

Obviously you could argue that having fighters protect the bomber means more cost but cost is justified if it means actually reaching and destroying the target.

For Iran a mini sub might be the best solution... with low speed very quiet propellers they could be towed out to sea by fishing vessels and then released to sail back towards any attacking western ships from behind... using lots of batteries you could make it so that it can be very quiet and sneak up on targets from behind, or position themselves in the path of enemy ships and dive down to sit just below their hull and when the ship comes over top a MAD sensor could make it go boom...

Being a submarine you could put ten tons of explosive inside it easily... along with ten tons of batteries.... connect a power cable to the fishing boat to charge the batteries to full charge while towing it out to position and then at the time it is released transmit the general positions they need to be at to be effective... they could release a small buoy with an antenna to receive targeting instructions... they could carry dozens of them including fake ones that are released with a delay so they pop up hours after the mini sub has gone by... the sub itself could operate along the sea floor to make it hard to detect but with sonar to detect vessels and aircraft and ships looking for it...

But separate missile must have own avionics. Most expensive part of missile.

There are lots of cheap guidance systems available... you don't need ARH or IIR sensors... simple command guidance or laser beam riding is relatively cheap and simple...

Therefore false economy to separate UCAV from missile. Best have UCAV that changes to missile or torpedo near target. No more big wing or slow. Rocket ignited. Engine ejected. Wing ejected. Evaporative cooling of body to ambient temperature. Composite body. Bigger payload. Because not carrying two sets of control and actuator and body. Just one set. Loose weight. Not gain weight.

The problem there is that each target requires its own individual bomber platform to deal with it... which might sound cheaper but would likely end up being much more expensive.

Of course cost is not the only factor... a weapon that costs $50 is no good if it does not destroy the target... if they can develop 152mm ammo that can reach targets 170km away then what could they achieve with a 203mm calibre round. Shore based gun artillery is interesting... and so would shore based rocket artillery... especially if it can be used against ground targets too...

That drone launcher is quite clever... though solid rocket boosters would be expensive compared with perhaps a compressed air launcher, but I guess solid rocket fuel was simpler.

Many Russian drones use an elastic launcher, but found in very cold conditions it does not work very well...

This seems very clever because you can change the launch order as you please so you might have some long endurance drone first to go out and look around and when it finds a few targets then other drones with bombs could be launched to attack those targets, or suicide drones could be used that lack the excellent optics of the loiter drone and only have cheap simple cameras that could fly out to the loiter drone and then attack the targets and then the loitering drone can return home with its expensive powerful day and night cameras to be reused.

Having each drone ready to launch also means if one fails to launch or crashes a replacement is ready to be launched in its place.

Also for ground forces having one drone to deal with can focus your attention so a drone flying higher might not be noticed so while enemy ground forces are firing small arms at a low flying expendable drone a more expensive reusable model of the same drone with much better wide angle cameras and state of the art navigation and laser range finding could be watching for muzzle flashes and recording the positions of enemy troops... ready for an air strike or artillery strike...

I like it, though I would probably replace the solid rocket motor with a compressed air launcher arm built in to the truck and perhaps operating from a compressor attached to the trucks engine... it would work in any temperatures and be completely reusable... make it the full height of the trailer box with perhaps three sections so it extends three times the height of the trailer at full reach on launch...

For heavy payloads perhaps a smaller solid rocket booster to further assist the launch... but most of the time just compressed air.