ELI5: Why does Iran use cheap drones in the war?

Iran uses cheap drones in war because they are like using lots of inexpensive toy cars instead of just a few really fancy, expensive ones.

Imagine you're playing with toy cars. You have two choices:

• A Super Car that's really fast, strong, and has lots of cool features, but costs a lot of your allowance.
• A whole bunch of Simple Cars that are slower, weaker, and don't have many features, but are super cheap.

Think of it this way:

• Cost: The Super Car is like a really expensive fighter jet or missile. If it gets shot down, it's a huge loss. The Simple Cars (drones) are cheap. Losing one or two isn't a big deal.
• Quantity: You can buy many Simple Cars for the price of one Super Car. Iran can build a lot of these cheap drones.
• Purpose: The Simple Cars can still do some important things. They can carry small packages (like bombs), take pictures (for spying), and make the other players (enemies) use up their resources trying to stop them. It’s like distracting the goalie in soccer so someone else can score.
• Difficult to Stop: Imagine trying to catch a swarm of bees. It's harder to catch many small things than one big thing. Lots of cheap drones can overwhelm defenses.