Iran's strategy to exhaust American and Israeli military and financial resources with cheap drones has proven quite effective, according to a report cited by the New York Times. Tehran has emphasized the use of Shahed-136 drones, priced at $35,000 apiece, which have been shot down with missiles worth hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars.
The Pentagon is currently struggling to develop cost-effective solutions to replace the high-tech interceptors that are draining Washington and Tel Aviv's resources.
According to the report, in the first 6 days of the war, the US spent $11.3 billion on the conflict, and by early April the amount had swelled to between $25 billion and $35 billion.
In an ideal scenario, aircraft and early warning systems detect a drone hundreds of kilometers away, allowing the F-16 to destroy it using Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) II missiles. Although these aerial patrols are cost-effective, the vast scope of the conflict limits their availability.
In addition, Iran has targeted the very early warning aircraft that the United States relies on for long-range detection.
To counter drones at shorter ranges, the United States uses the Coyote system, which can intercept targets up to 14 km away. Although effective and relatively inexpensive, the U.S. military has purchased few Coyotes in recent years.
The Navy's Aegis combat system on destroyers uses Standard Missile 2 (SM-2) interceptors to shoot down drones, but military protocol requires firing at least two missiles per target.
Similarly, the Army's Patriot system remains the standard method for base defense. Although capable of hitting a drone from nearly 27 miles away, the use of PAC-3 MSE missiles remains prohibitively expensive.
When a drone is less than 1.2 miles from its target, ground-based weapons such as the Centurion C-RAM provide a final layer of defense. Its cost is relatively low, but the C-RAM's extremely short range makes it more of a last resort than a primary solution.
The Pentagon has begun considering AI-powered interceptor drones, such as the Merops Surveyor, to hunt down enemy missiles and drones at a lower cost. Thousands of these devices have been deployed to the Middle East, although their effectiveness remains unclear.
The U.S. has also developed a $1 billion laser technology that can be fired for as little as $3, but its effectiveness is still unknown. Defense analysts warn that the United States may run out of sophisticated interceptors before it can replace them with the listed alternative methods and stockpiles, leaving critical gaps in regional security.