President Trump has publicly dismissed the idea that the American military could benefit from Ukrainian expertise in drone warfare — even as Iran deploys the same fiber-optic guided weapons that Ukraine has been fighting against for over a year.
"We don't need their help in drone defense. We know more about drones than anybody," Trump told Fox News this month, "Hvylya" reports, citing The Wall Street Journal.
Defense analysts on both sides of the Atlantic sharply criticized the statement. Ukraine has accumulated more practical experience in drone warfare — both offensive and defensive — than any other country, having fought a war in which drones account for the majority of battlefield casualties.
Andriy Zagorodnyuk, a former Ukrainian defense minister who chairs the Center for Defense Strategies in Kyiv, said Russia and Iran are actively collaborating. "As true allies, the Iranians are absorbing the lessons of the war, and will try to absorb more," he said.
A Russian academic who follows the topic told The Wall Street Journal that Iran had quickly adopted Moscow's drone innovations. "Iran had a good teacher in Russia, and was eager to learn from this war. I haven't seen the same willingness in the U.S.," the academic said.
Rob Lee, a former Marine Corps infantry officer and senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said the best countermeasure against fiber-optic FPV drones is to locate and destroy the drone teams before they launch. That approach relies on the kind of close-in surveillance and rapid-strike capability that the U.S. military would need to develop at scale before any ground operation against Iran.
"Hvylya" earlier reported on how Foreign Policy warned about what Ukraine's fight foreshadows for other states facing similar threats.