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Shop bought drones don't have arbitrary, often nonsense requirements. This one advertises that it'll work in 50MPH winds. How common are soldiers dealing with combat in 50MPH winds? It's likely there are other, similarly arbitrary and nonsensical demands that were placed on these.

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Arguably one of the main differences between defence and consumer tech is dealing with the 'oh come on how often...'

You don't want to be caught needing your X or calling off operation Y because conditions are unfavourable.

It's kind of Pareto principle I suppose - they'll pay (say) 80% for that last rarer 20% of operational feasibility. (Likely more like 95-5, but I mention 80-20 as it's basically an 'aka' for Pareto.)

If you're fighting an opponent whose drones can only handle 40 mph winds, you might try to do as much combat at 50 mph as possible.

How many actual historical battles or skirmishes have been fought in gale force winds?

Those wars are over. You have to be ready for the next war.

Operating nearby to helicopters may be feasible

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/rise-of-the-machines

"If you look at historical data, the vast majority of battle-winners used pre-modern weaponry"

"Thanks to the machine-learning algorithms, the robot apocalypse was short-lived"

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