Tracing the US military’s learning curve on fighting Iran’s drones: What to know

The ongoing conflict with Iran has become a critical test of America’s ability to counter the increasingly prevalent threat of low-cost drones on modern battlefields. Despite successfully intercepting the majority of Iranian drone attacks, U.S. forces have faced challenges as some unmanned aircraft have penetrated defensive systems, including one devastating strike that killed six American soldiers at a Kuwait operations center.

Defense analysts note that while the U.S. military has effectively neutralized many Iranian drones, the approach has often involved using multi-million-dollar missiles to shoot down relatively inexpensive drone aircraft that cost mere thousands to produce. This cost imbalance has prompted a strategic rethinking of America’s anti-drone capabilities.

In response to these challenges, the Pentagon is deploying an anti-drone system to the Middle East that has been battle-tested in Ukraine. The system, known as Merops, utilizes drone-on-drone technology, is highly portable, and employs artificial intelligence to navigate when electronic communications are disrupted.

“We are crushing them — there’s no doubt about it — but if even one drone gets through our defenses and hurts an American, for me, that is enough to warrant fixing the problem,” said Brett Velicovich, a drone warfare expert and former U.S. Army Predator drone operator who now co-leads the Power.us drone manufacturing company.

General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reported Tuesday that Iranian drone launches have decreased by 83% since the conflict began on February 28. He noted that U.S. forces are targeting military and industrial sites within Iran “to deny them the ability to continue to generate those one-way attack drones.” In the initial phase of the conflict, Iran launched more than 2,000 drones following the first U.S. and Israeli strikes.

The U.S. and its allies have deployed hundreds of Patriot missiles across the Middle East to defend against Iranian missiles and drones. However, military officials are now shifting toward more cost-effective countermeasures, including attack helicopters and machine guns. President Donald Trump acknowledged this tactical shift, stating, “Now we have low-cost interceptors effectively combating Iranian drones.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed that his country had proposed a deal with the United States last year to share advanced, combat-proven drone technology, including interceptor drones. “I do not know whether they refused it. I’m not sure, but it was definitely postponed,” Zelenskyy said, adding that Ukraine still hopes to formalize such an arrangement.

The Pentagon’s drone dominance program manager, Travis Metz, informed senators last week that the Defense Department has allocated $1.1 billion to purchase drone systems over the next 18 months. This includes 30,000 small, one-way attack drones scheduled for delivery to military units within the next five months.

Iranian Shahed drones have demonstrated their ability to overwhelm air defenses and inflict significant damage. Despite their relatively slow speed of approximately 110 mph, these drones can travel up to 1,240 miles and carry an 88-pound explosive payload. This differs significantly from the U.S. military’s traditional reliance on sophisticated reusable drones like the Predator, which fire missiles and return to base.

“This is going to be a big wake-up call for how the U.S. military defends its citizens and fights wars forever,” Velicovich noted. “Because it’s sort of like we’re the best military on the planet, but stuff’s still getting by us.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has acknowledged the challenge, noting that while “thousands of Iranian missiles and drones have been intercepted and vaporized,” the military cannot “stop everything.”

Ryan Brobst, a defense strategy scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, pointed to social media evidence showing U.S. and allied forces using more economical weapons against drones, including aircraft machine guns and laser-guided rockets. One video posted by the United Arab Emirates military showed an Apache helicopter neutralizing a Shahed drone with a machine gun.

William Reno, a Northwestern University professor researching Ukraine’s military training for the Pentagon, observed that Ukraine has developed cost-effective methods to counter drones, such as mounting .50-caliber machine guns on pickup trucks or using interceptor drones.

“The long-run effect will probably be that it’s going to focus minds wonderfully on thinking more seriously about cheap stuff that comes through the air,” Reno said, adding that “Ukraine was the wake-up call” for reimagining how to control low-altitude airspace.

The U.S. military is already implementing some programs centered on inexpensive drones, including the Low-cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS), which American forces are currently utilizing in Iran. Military officials have described these American-made, one-way attack drones as “modeled after Iran’s Shahed drones,” though specific details about their effectiveness remain classified.