From PBS News: An American anti-drone system proven to work against Russian drones in Ukraine will soon be sent to the Middle East to bolster U.S. defenses against Iranian drones, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Friday.
While the U.S. has used Patriot and THAAD missile systems to take down Iranian missiles successfully, there are limited effective anti-drone defenses now in the Middle East, according to a U.S. defense official, one of two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.
The U.S. response to countering Iran’s Shahed drones has been “disappointing,” the other U.S. official said, particularly because the drones fired by Iran are a much more basic version of the same drone that Russia is continuously refining and updating in its war in Ukraine.
The U.S. and its allies have struggled against Iran’s attack drones in the Middle East. Pentagon officials reportedly admitted that Iranian drones are penetrating air defenses, endangering American troops.
The Hill reported, “Pentagon officials this past week reportedly conceded in closed-door briefings with lawmakers that waves of Iranian-launched drones are punching through air defenses, leaving American troops and bases in the Persian Gulf region vulnerable to attacks.”
America’s armed forces are using costly Patriot and THAAD interceptors. Whole they get the job done, they take years to build and cost millions of dollars to build.
Meanwhile, Iran’s inexpensive Shahed 136 drones are a relatively inexpensive weapon that costs around $20,000 to quickly produce.
The Hill reports:
President Trump on Friday met with major defense contractors — including Lockheed Martin, the maker of THAAD, and Raytheon, which produces Patriots — during which he claimed they agreed to quadruple production of so-called exquisite class weaponry. But even with a ramped-up building schedule, such weapons can take up to two years to finish, with defense experts warning the Iranian drone attacks could disrupt the Persian Gulf region for weeks into months and drain American munitions stockpiles.
“Iran’s strategy is premised upon sending cheap drones that the U.S. needs to shoot down with expensive interceptors,” said Colin Clarke, the executive director of the Soufan Center. “Tehran is attempting to pursue a strategy of ‘death by a thousand paper cuts’ to bleed U.S. and Israeli defenses.”
Former Army intelligence soldier Brett Velicovich, who worked with Ukraine’s drone forces, said he’s warned the U.S. about drone warfare.
“We’ve been on the ground in Ukraine and have seen how drone warfare has evolved,” he told The Hill.
Velicovich said the U.S. federal contracting system is not built for rapid innovation, which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth admitted last year in announcing an initiative to ramp up military drone innovation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that his country is sending some of its military specialists to the Middle East to help counter Iranian drones and missiles, according to a separate report from The Hill. The outlet reported:
In a post to the social platform X, Zelensky said he has tasked Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs, minister of defense, intelligence agencies and the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine “to present options for assisting the relevant countries and to provide aid in a way that does not weaken our own defense” in Ukraine.
“In just a few days, Iran has launched over 800 missiles of various types and more than 1,400 attack drones. It is Iranian drones and missiles that pose the main threat to free navigation, destabilizing global prices for oil, petroleum products, and gas,” he wrote.
He noted he is consulting with partners in Europe and the United States and that he spoke with the leaders of several countries neighboring Iran, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan and Bahrain. Talks with Kuwait and other countries in the region are also planned.
“All of them face a serious challenge and speak openly about it: Iranian attack drones are the same ‘shaheds’ that have been striking our cities, villages, and our Ukrainian infrastructure throughout this war,” he added.
The U.S. will be deploying the Merops anti-drone system. It uses AI to identify and neutralize drones, even when communications are jammed, and is cost-effective compared to traditional missile interceptors. Ukraine will provide assistance to the US, including the Merops system.
The system that is being sent, known as Merops, flies drones against drones. It is small enough to fit in the back of a midsize pickup truck. https://t.co/5AJ2rhxseQ
— Defense News (@defense_news) March 7, 2026
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