I caught that as well. Still costs less to put a sacrificial mule in the driver seat than to automate them. A long time ago when Georgia Tech was flying GPS guided helicopters in the UAV contests I wondered just how much it would cost to build a drug mule like that. Should be pretty trivial, drop via GPS and you don't need human pilots. Of course if you get spotted a human can abort back over the border but a robot will lead the follower to the drop point.
so plan on the UAV getting tracked, and drop multiple payloads along the route - expect some to get taken, but it requires DEA to follow the entire path instead of looking for the point in the path where the UAV turns around to go home.
actually, that is way to complicated. drug runners come up with some really simple solutions to problems, that to more educated people seem stupid, but is a perfect example of a MVP.
MIDD - multiple independent drug drops :-) I was going for a pun on MIRV but didn't quite get there. One of the things is that payload value is linear with volume and delivery platform cost is inverse exponential with size. Seems like the ultralight as a 'platform' hits a sweet spot. The rail gun the navy is looking at should be able to lob a projectile 200 miles so perhaps we can look forward to artillery delivery of drugs into southern AZ.
A step further: you send 10 planes, only a single plane is loaded with drugs, the 9 other with stones. Now DEA has to track 10 planes doing multiple drops.
