The US military campaign against Iran has exposed a critical gap in American drone defenses that years of watching the war in Ukraine should have closed. Gen. David Petraeus, former CIA director and former commander of US Central Command, said the growing drone threat is an area "where I don't think we have learned as much as we should have from what Ukraine has had to learn, sometimes much of it the hard way."
The retired general laid out a fundamental cost problem at the heart of the drone challenge, "Hvylya" reports, citing his remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Using a missile interceptor to shoot down a drone makes no economic sense when the interceptor costs at least $2 million and the drone costs no more than $30,000.
Petraeus said the military mission involves both defeating drones in flight and going after their launch sites, stockpiles, and manufacturing facilities. But drones are far more numerous than missiles, and many are stored in underground tunnels - making the task considerably harder than the already impressive dismantling of Iran's conventional missile capabilities.
The general pointed to Ukraine as the model the US should have followed far earlier. He described Ukraine's counter-drone system as "very comprehensive," involving radars, acoustic sensors, heavy machine guns, lights, electronic warfare, and specialized drone intercept teams. Having recently visited Ukraine, Petraeus said he joined one such team on a late-night mission outside Kyiv and witnessed their training firsthand.
Ukraine has already volunteered to help. Petraeus said Kyiv "called the countries in the region and even the United States" to offer its drone interceptor teams - low-cost, effective systems operated by "exceedingly skilled" pilots. The offer came as the US military scrambles to scale up counter-drone capabilities that were clearly insufficient when the campaign began.
Also read: One-Fifth of US Interceptor Stockpile Burned Through in Three Days, McMaster Warns