Cheap drones transform global battlefield

"Iran fired nearly 2,000 drones at U.S. bases and allied targets across 12 countries - slamming into airports, five-star hotels and oil infrastructure across the Gulf. Six U.S. service members were killed March 1 when an Iranian drone evaded air defenses and struck an operations center in Kuwait. 'We basically had no drone defeat capability,' one source told CBS News."

"Russia imported thousands of Shaheds from Iran and built an entire factory to mass-produce its own version - the Geran - turning them into a nightly terror for Ukrainian cities. The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen deployed their own copy, the Waid, and launched attacks that paralyzed Red Sea shipping for two years."

"Ukraine, fighting for its life against Russian Shaheds for the past four years, is now the world's foremost authority on stopping them. Ukrainian officials offered Washington their anti-drone technology eight months before the Iran war started. The Trump administration turned them down. After the war started, the U.S. reversed course. Ukrainian specialists are now deployed to the Gulf to train U.S. and allied forces."

Iran's Shahed drones, costing $20,000-$50,000 each, have become a strategic equalizer by forcing adversaries to respond with million-dollar interceptor missiles. In the initial conflict week, Tehran deployed nearly 2,000 drones across 12 countries, killing six U.S. service members when one evaded defenses in Kuwait. The Shahed's design has proliferated globally: Russia mass-produces its Geran variant for use against Ukraine, Yemen's Houthis operate the Waid copy, and the U.S. reverse-engineered its own LUCAS version. Ukraine, battle-hardened against Shaheds for four years, offered anti-drone technology to Washington eight months before the Iran conflict, but the Trump administration declined. Following the war's outbreak, the U.S. reversed course, deploying Ukrainian specialists to train Gulf forces on drone defense.

Read at Axios