An interesting piece from Phenomenal World about the economics of the Shahed drone, a weapon that appears to have already changed military strategy, not merely tactics.
Ultimately, the key finding here is that the production of a Shahed-136 drone is only as resource and labor intensive for Iran as the production of a basic agricultural tractor. As such, the pecuniary comparison understates the feasibility for Iran to continue its current drone campaign. The Iran Tractor Company produces 35,000 tractors a year, even under the significant restrictions of “maximum pressure” sanctions. But a drone is also not much more complex to produce than a small car and Iran’s automotive sector produces over 1,000,000 passenger vehicles annually, supported by a large steel and aluminum industry and ample domestic parts manufacturers.