Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has invested in Ukrainian drone and counter-drone technology and is actively lobbying the US military to adopt systems that have been proven in combat against Iranian-designed Shaheds.
As "Hvylya" reports, citing The Atlantic, Schmidt praised Ukrainian defense production at a European security summit last month. "They're so inexpensive. They're so battle-tested," he said. "When you go to the factories, it's almost like China: rows and rows and rows of people working incredibly hard 24 hours a day."
Among the systems Schmidt has seen firsthand is the P1-Sun, one of Ukraine's most effective drone interceptors. When The Atlantic visited its Kyiv factory last month, the manufacturers said they can produce 100,000 units per month - far more than the Ukrainian military currently orders. Those drones may soon be heading to the Middle East, where multiple US allies are under sustained Iranian drone attack.
Schmidt's advocacy comes as the US military confronts the limits of its own approach. The Pentagon has relied on expensive interceptors, F-35s, and Patriot missiles to counter cheap drones - a strategy that costs roughly $1 billion per day and is rapidly depleting stockpiles. Ukraine, by contrast, has developed AI-enabled interceptor drones that cost as little as $1,000 and achieve a roughly 90 percent success rate against Shaheds.
The American failure to adopt Ukrainian innovations extends across administrations and political parties. The US invested heavily in countering long-range threats from China rather than close-range drone swarms. Ukraine's government, meanwhile, has built partnerships with several European countries on joint drone production and recently saw UForce - a consortium of its top manufacturers - close a $50 million seed-funding round from foreign investors, including a Silicon Valley firm with Pentagon ties.
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