The past four weeks of fighting with Iran have forced U.S. military planners to contend with the threat that one-way attack drones pose on modern battlefields.
After the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, Iranian forces began launching thousands of them at targets across the Middle East.
One-way attack drone designs, like Iran’s Shahed-136, are relatively cheap, costing a few thousand dollars a piece. This low financial barrier is part of their appeal, giving their users an easy way to impose high costs.
While an explosive-packed attack drone is less sophisticated than one of the hundreds of ballistic missiles Iran has also launched since Feb. 28, it can still be challenging to stop.
Of the 13 U.S. military personnel killed in the Iran conflict, six died in a single drone strike in Kuwait on March 1.
Addressing that attack, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said U.S. forces have great air defenses but “every once in a while, you might have one … that makes its way through.”
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These drone attacks aren’t just hitting U.S. military outposts. Iranian forces are also using these weapons to harass the various neighboring states that have hosted U.S. forces over the years.
“Iran has a very wide selection of potential targets,” Doug Bandow, a foreign policy analyst for the Cato Institute, said in a recent interview with The Epoch Times.
Drone attacks have targeted airports, energy sites, and other critical infrastructure throughout the region.
U.S. operations have worked to target the Iranian drone threat at its source.
At a Pentagon press briefing last week, Hegseth said Iranian attack drone launches remain down about 90 percent from their peak at the start of the conflict.
At the same briefing, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said regional partners have also joined in efforts to intercept drones. He said these partner forces have flown Apache attack helicopters to support this aerial drone hunt.
But at even a fraction of Iran’s peak launch rate, and with efforts to stop these attacks in mid-air, these drones are still landing on targets.
On March 20, the Kuwaiti government reported that 25 attack drones entered its airspace. Kuwaiti forces reported intercepting 15 of them.
Intercepting drones also poses a challenging economic prospect. The weapons used to shoot down attack drones may be more expensive than the drones themselves.
Jammers and lasers may pose an attractive alternative to launching a $2 million missile at a $30,000 Shahed-136, but even these options have limits.
Some drones are specifically designed to be resilient to jamming, according to Irina Tsukerman, who leads the threat advisory company, Scarab Rising. She said jamming a drone might degrade its accuracy, “but degradation does not necessarily translate into prevention.”
Laser interceptors may also be limited by their large power requirements, according to Jeff Thompson, president and CEO of drone technology company Red Cat Holdings.
“You can’t just depend on those to be there, protecting you for 24 hours,” Thompson said.
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