The US administration has conceded that ignoring a Ukrainian proposal to co-produce drone interceptors was a significant mistake - one that left American forces less prepared for Iran's aerial campaign launched on February 28, "Hvylya" reports, citing an analysis by CEPA security columnist Colby Badhwar.
Last August, during a meeting at the White House, President Volodymyr Zelensky pitched Donald Trump on a partnership to produce interceptor drones. The Ukrainian delegation arrived with a PowerPoint presentation detailing the threat Iranian drones posed to US forces and allies across the Middle East. Kyiv proposed building a joint regional drone defense network. The administration dismissed the offer.
"If there's a tactical error or a mistake we made leading up to this, this was it," a US official told Axios. The admission came after nearly 100 Iranian drones managed to penetrate the United Arab Emirates' air defenses in the opening weeks of Operation Epic Fury.
Ukrainian counter-drone teams have since been deployed to work alongside American forces in Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. While Kyiv cannot supply interceptor drones in large numbers at short notice, its personnel bring four years of frontline experience. Ukraine regularly intercepts around 90% of Russian drones through a combination of technology, tactics, and battlefield improvisation.
Badhwar notes that the US "embarked on Operation Epic Fury without an accurate assessment" of the drone threat's likely scale. In February - the worst month of Ukraine's four-year war - the country faced an average of 191 missile and drone strikes per day, giving its military an unmatched depth of counter-drone expertise now in high demand across the Gulf.
Also read: Ukraine Built What the US Wouldn't: How Kyiv Pioneered a Cheap Answer to Russia's Drone Swarms.