Jamming-resistant datalinks for loitering munitions add $8K to a $30K weapon, doubling the comms cost

A loitering munition needs a continuous video downlink for the operator to identify targets, plus an uplink for manual guidance corrections. In a contested electromagnetic environment, this link must be jam-resistant (frequency-hopping, directional antenna, spread spectrum), which adds an $8K radio module to a $30K weapon. The radio alone costs 25% of the total weapon. If the datalink is jammed despite these measures, the operator loses control and the munition either crashes or reverts to autonomous terminal guidance (which raises the ROE issues). This persists because jam-resistant radios are expensive because they use defense-grade waveforms with restricted crypto that cannot leverage cheaper commercial radio architectures.