U.S. and allied militaries have turned to fighter jets of their battle to push back Iran’s low-cost, plentiful drones, however former pilots say the mission is pricey, harmful, and, finally, unsustainable with present techniques.
Open-source intelligence accounts and information retailers have posted movies of high-powered fighter jets downing Iran’s low-cost unmanned plane for the reason that conflict started late final month. On Tuesday, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees, confirmed that U.S. and allied forces had performed “intercepts towards one-way assault drones utilizing fighters and assault helicopters,” and stated it was one motive that Iran’s use of the drones had “decreased 83 % for the reason that starting of the operation.”
Final week, a Royal Air Pressure F-35 pilot shot down a drone that had evaded air defenses over Jordan. One former British army officer referred to as it “utilizing a sledgehammer to crack a nut.”
Former U.S. fighter pilots who spoke with Protection One agreed with the previous UK officer’s evaluation. A few of Iran’s drones, which value within the low 5 figures, are being downed by missiles that value twenty or forty occasions as a lot, launched from plane with comparatively excessive working prices. And the velocity differential between jets and drones can pose issues in chaotic battlespaces.
The U.S. is now looking for recommendation, steering, and help from Ukraine’s army on learn how to counter enemy drones primarily based on what it has discovered throughout its four-year conflict with Russia.
U.S. Central Command didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark looking for further particulars on how U.S. fighter jets have countered waves of Shahed-136 drones.
John Waters, a former Air Pressure F-16 pilot, stated enemy drones have quickly “remodeled the battle house” and stated tackling swarms of unmanned methods presents a number of issues for fighter jets.
“Know-how will proceed to enhance on either side, however mass is certainly a problem. Massive drone swarms are difficult,” Waters stated. “For fighters to have the ability to goal and remove quite a few threats directly clearly presents challenges after we’re speaking about congested airspace, a number of fighters, a number of threats, a number of friendlies, and having to handle [that] .”
Earlier this month, CENTCOM confirmed that three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagles have been shot down in “an obvious pleasant fireplace incident,” over Kuwait, including it passed off “throughout energetic fight—that included assaults from Iranian plane, ballistic missiles, and drones.”
The dying toll from unintercepted drones has been steep. Final week, six U.S. troopers have been killed in a makeshift facility in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, after it was struck by an Iranian drone that evaded air defenses.
Caine stated throughout a Pentagon press convention Tuesday that the U.S. has began to focus on Iran’s drone producers.
“We have begun to focus on Iran’s army and industrial advanced, once more specializing in facilities of gravity to get upstream of the shooters out within the discipline with the intention to deny them the flexibility to proceed to generate these one-way assault drones,” he stated.
Downing drones and curbing prices
The primary 100 hours of Operation Epic Fury value roughly $3.7 billion, or $891.4 million per day, in line with a current Heart for Strategic and Worldwide Safety estimate. CSIS analysts reported that air-defense munitions prices for these preliminary operations might have ranged from $1.2 billion to $3.7 billion.
Many U.S. and allied jets are armed with AIM-120s that value round $1 million and AIM-9s of round $400,000 every.
Utilizing costly air- or ground-based interceptors to focus on the cheap Shahed drones is a victory for Iran, Forecast Worldwide, a sister publication of Protection One, stated in a report final week.
“Each $30,000 Shahed that forces the U.S. or a companion to fireplace a $4 million PAC-3 missile is a large win for Iran—due to the relative value, and since Iran has way more low-cost drones than the U.S. and its companions have costly interceptors,” the report stated.
Lately, to scale back the price of costly munitions used on one-way assault drones, the Air Pressure outfitted fourth-generation U.S. fighter jets such because the F-15E and F-16s with a extra reasonably priced missile. The Superior Precision Kill Weapon System II, or APKWS, is a precision-guided rocket with a value ranging anyplace from almost $25,000 to $40,000, in line with a 2025 report for the Heart for a New American Safety.
Adm. Brad Cooper, the CENTCOM commander, stated throughout a press convention final week that the army has been embracing more cost effective drone interceptors.
“I believe you’ve got seen over a time frame, us type of get on the opposite aspect of this value curve, on drones basically,” Cooper informed reporters. “If I simply stroll again a few years, do you keep in mind what you used to all the time hear? ‘We’re capturing down a $50,000 drone with a $2 million missile.’ Nowadays we’re spending a whole lot of time capturing down hundred-thousand-dollar drones with $10,000-weapons.”
Final Might, CENTCOM posted a video it stated confirmed the downing of a Houthi drone with an APKWS.
CENTCOM didn’t reply to a Protection One question asking if the APKWS had seen widespread use throughout Operation Epic Fury.
Waters stated fifth-generation fighter jets firing costly munitions at Shahed drones appears impractical.
“I believe it is honest to say that F-35s and F-22s are overkill on the subject of capturing down a drone that has an engine you would possibly discover in a garden mower,” Waters stated. “Nonetheless, we have needed to make the most of our high-end fighters to counter these threats as a result of they’re new and rising.”
He views F-15 and F-16 fighters with upgraded radar methods and APKWS missiles as “key parts” towards the rising risk of drones on the battlefield.
“Once we first noticed fighters being utilized to take down drones, we noticed them utilizing AIM-120s and AIM-9s,” Waters stated. “Now, with the introduction of the AGR-20 [APKWS], we’re capable of see the U.S. reply to those drones with a comparatively low-cost weapon versus a sophisticated missile.”
Traditionally, F-16 fighter jets have focused surface-to-air missile websites by way of Suppression of Enemy Air Protection, or SEAD, missions, utilizing the Air Pressure’s “Wild Weasel” squadrons.
However Dan Hampton, a former F-16 Wild Weasel pilot, informed Protection One he wouldn’t be shocked to see these SEAD aviators tackle Iranian drones if referred to as upon.
“I am going to let you know, from expertise, the Wild Weasel stuff was only one mission that we did, and we’d pivot three, 4 occasions every mission to completely different missions,” Hampton stated. “We did not shoot down drones then as a result of there weren’t any drones. However, we’d go from looking and killing SAMs to looking tanks or blowing up bridges or no matter it was that was wanted, so long as we had gasoline and ammunition, we’d adapt to it.”
Dave Deptula, a former fighter pilot and the dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Energy Research, highlighted the strategic significance of taking out the drone launchers themselves, and stated a multi-role F-16 could be as much as that job.
“The easiest way to conduct protection is thru an offense,” Deptula stated. “So, I’ll exit and I’ll attempt to blow up all of these Shahed launchers.”
‘Too little, too late’
Ukraine has countered Shahed drones for greater than 4 years in its ongoing conflict with Russia—with out state-of-the-art fighters or costly munitions. Now, regardless of previous slights by President Donald Trump’s administration, the nation is backing the U.S. in its combat towards Iran’s unmanned methods.
“We acquired a request from the US for particular help in safety towards ‘Shaheds’ within the Center East area,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X. “I gave directions to supply the mandatory means and make sure the presence of Ukrainian specialists who can assure the required safety.”
Hampton informed Protection One, that primarily based on Ukraine’s conflict with Russia, it’s doubtless that Ukraine would advise the U.S. army to make use of “every little thing they will,” regardless of the monetary value.
“The USA weapons expertise is the most effective on the earth. In the event you’re having to make use of a $3 million missile to shoot down a $50,000 drone, yeah, it is not cost-effective, if that is solely your metric,” Hampton stated. “However you even have to contemplate, the place is that this drone heading? Is it headed for the middle of an influence grid? Is it headed for a hospital or a college or one thing like that? Through which case, who cares how a lot the weapons value to deliver it down?”
Hampton stated the Pentagon must also take into account different options, equivalent to utilizing mild assault plane armed with rockets and weapons to counter drones.
Ukraine has provided its data and confirmed expertise up to now. The nation reportedly tried to promote the U.S. its counter-drone methods final 12 months throughout a White Home presentation, warning that Iran had been constructing on the design of its one-way assault drones.
In 2024, the Joint Chiefs of Employees Joint Classes Discovered Division, which research warfare and shares its data with the providers, had no “working teams or people” who targeted solely on Ukraine, Protection One beforehand reported.
“I believe it is too little, too late,” Hampton stated. “Once more, if there’s one defining attribute of the administration in Washington, it is conceitedness. They’ll do it their manner, it doesn’t matter what, and so they’ve solely belatedly realized that possibly, on this case, they need to have requested folks that have apparently been doing this for years and years and years.”
