Regardless podded Miniguns could be a useful addition to the drone's armament mix in various scenarios. Guns, as compared to bombs or missiles, can provide a way to better focus fire on smaller targets or groups of targets, as well shift that fire more readily from one set of targets to the next. This could all be particularly valuable for engaging threats in dense urban areas or that otherwise might be dangerously close to friendly forces or innocent bystanders on the ground.
Even with only around a minute of total firing time, the gun pods might give a single drone the ability to engage more total targets during a single sortie, as well.
At the same time, the emphasis in the past on arming drones like Mojave with precision-guided munitions has been driven in no small part due to the vulnerability of those platforms to ground fire. Beyond that, the ability to engage threats while flying at higher altitudes offers a way for unmanned aircraft to try to avoid detection by personnel on the ground, which can be important when engaging time-sensitive or fleeting targets.
A gun pod, especially one loaded with a weapon like a Minigun chambered to fire the relatively small 7.62x51mm cartridge, imposes not-insignificant limitations on the general flight profile of the aircraft carrying it. To be as effective as possible, it must be employed at ranges that put that platform much closer to the target.
