The original search has been costed at $160 million to search 120,000 square kilometres. The new search of only 5,000 square kilometres should therefore only cost $6.4 million. That seems like a bargain if it wasn't for the suggestion that the area that actually might need to be searched is 25,000 square kilometres or very nearly a fifth as large as the original search. That would probably end up costing $32 million and does not seem such a reasonable sum given the low probability of success.
Putting forward a small initial search area is a useful psychological ploy. Once on the hook for a few million dollars, it becomes much easier to attempt to seek further funding to extend the search given the amount invested to date.
So is this really a bargain basement solution or a cynical attempt to milk more government funds out of this tragedy?