| Bloomberg News reports that Iran's production of Shahed drones has slowed but hasn't been halted by US and Israeli airstrikes. That means Americans and their allies in the region need to continue their defense against the weapons. As Jake Rudnitsky writes, there are better options than expensive Patriot missiles. Plus: What the US and Israel learned in 2025 that shapes today's fighting (free read). If this email was forwarded to you, click here to sign up. When the US came knocking for Kyiv's help to protect against the waves of Shahed drones fired at its Middle East bases and allies, many Ukrainians had one question: What took so long? For anyone who hasn't been paying attention to Europe's biggest war in 80 years, Russia uses swarms of Iranian-designed Shaheds to terrorize Ukraine. These drones, often called a poor man's cruise missile, can travel more than 1,200 miles and are equipped with precision guidance. Kyiv responded by developing a layered defense, including an early-warning radar network, electronic warfare, old-school tactics like truck-mounted machine guns that track known flight paths and innovations such as low-cost domestically made drones.  An Iranian-designed Shahed drone launched by Russia, flying over Kyiv on Dec. 27. Photographer: Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images The system that's evolved is remarkably effective. Russia fires as many as hundreds of drones and missiles per night, and Ukraine's interception rate can reach 90%. While US-made Patriot missiles are used against ballistic and hypersonic threats, its homegrown defenses counter drones. Electronic warfare, which targets the drones' navigation systems and can misdirect them, is particularly effective against Shaheds that use mobile phone or mesh networks to steer. Quadcopter interceptors, which two years ago didn't exist, now cost about $2,000 a pop, according to Oleksandr Khomiak, the co-founder of a London-based tech fund set up to help the Ukrainian war effort. Compare that with the $4 million Patriots that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have used to shoot down Shaheds, which cost about $20,000 each. Modern war is about exploiting mismatches, and a 200:1 cost-exchange ratio isn't sustainable, even for a superpower. "Ukraine's approach to countering Shahed drones is based on a multilayered system because there is no single tool that can solve the problem," says Yaroslav Filimonov, the chief executive officer of Kvertus, a Ukrainian company that makes anti-drone electronic warfare systems. "The key principle is economic efficiency: The interceptor should not cost more than the drone." It's an approach that's finally getting its due. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been fielding interest about the country's Shahed strategy from leaders including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He's already dispatched a team of drone experts to US military bases in Jordan, the New York Times reported on Monday. Gulf countries have also started using attack helicopters to shoot down incoming drones, another tactic borrowed from Ukraine that's far cheaper than using antiballistic missiles. "It's a good moment for Ukraine to showcase its tech outside of Ukraine," Khomiak says. That it took a war perhaps shouldn't be surprising, even though it wasn't a secret that Iran was stockpiling Shahed drones and fired off hundreds during the 12-day conflict with Israel and the US last year. Iranian authorities have long emphasized asymmetric warfare as a deterrent, and American allies in the Gulf were an obvious target. But denial is a powerful force. The head of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service was famously stranded in Ukraine when Russia launched its full-scale invasion even though US warnings about the impending attack couldn't have been clearer. A similar lack of foresight has forced the US and allies to use expensive hardware to counter Iranian drones when a far cheaper, efficient alternative has already been shown to work just as well. "Partners in the region do not just need more Patriots, but layered, asymmetric, scalable defense," Tymofiy Mylovanov, the president of the Kyiv School of Economics, said on LinkedIn. "They need Ukrainian doctrine." Previously in Businessweek, on Trump's Golden Dome: The Astronomical Cost of Defeating 'Any Foreign Aerial Attack' Latest from Iran: Live Updates Iran's Cheap, Plentiful Weaponry: US Military Is Under Unprecedented Strain Listen to the Big Take podcast: Who Runs Out of Munitions First in Iran Ukraine Faces Air Defense Squeeze: Iran War Burns Supplies Thomas Black writes in Bloomberg Opinion: Oil Prices Are Leaving Airlines With Nowhere to Hide | 
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