Why attacks on warships and drones carry different legal weight

If a cyberattack on a warship can be an act of war, why is an attack on a drone treated differently?

Because warships have a distinctive status as sovereign territory at sea, whereas aircraft cannot carry the same territorial claim through another state's airspace.

The legal status of the platforms separates a cyberattack on a warship from an attack on an aerial drone. A warship is treated as sovereign territory while it remains afloat, including when it visits a foreign port under the rules governing ships at sea. Extending the same territorial claim to an aircraft would create contradictions whenever it flew through another state's airspace. This simplified explanation identifies why boarding or attacking ships can produce a different diplomatic crisis from destroying an uncrewed aircraft.