Model planes aren't exactly easy to fly around, they take a decent bit of training to know how to fly them and at best they may get 15 minutes of air time before the fuel is out. Landing is the hardest part of the whole job. Most of that additional cost probably goes into making military tough stuff that doesn't need much training to do at all. I saw an article posted here about just that a couple days ago. Apparently the planes are controlled by a laptop and its just point and click, with some light training in landing them.
"Landing is the hardest part of the whole job."
Sounds like a lot of these planes will never have to worry about that part. If needed, couldn't they just land in a bunch of pillows, or something?