Conformal coating adds $18/unit to expendable drones that cost $200 total BOM

Military FPV drones need conformal coating on electronics to survive humidity, rain, and salt air, but the MIL-I-46058C coating process (spray, cure, inspect) adds $18 per unit in labor and materials -- a 9% cost increase on a $200 drone that will be destroyed on first use. At 2,000 units/month, that is $36,000/month spent waterproofing electronics that exist for a single 15-minute flight. This persists because conformal coating is a manual process requiring trained operators, and no one has developed an automated dip-and-cure line optimized for the small form factors and rapid design iteration cycles of FPV drone boards.