America’s Drone Defense Failure in the Middle East: What the Pentagon Isn’t Telling You

In the early weeks of the conflict with Iran-backed forces, the U.S. military faced an uncomfortable truth: it was unprepared for a new breed of warfare dominated by inexpensive, swarm-style drones. Although Washington touts intercepting thousands of these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the reality on the ground is far less reassuring. Why Are We Using Million-Dollar Missiles to Down $20,000 Drones? The Islamic Republic flooded battlefields across the Middle East with swarms of Iranian Shahed drones—cheap, low-flying UAVs capable of evading costly missile defenses by sheer numbers. The result? Some slipped through, with deadly consequences, like the strike that tragically...