{"id":7564,"date":"2026-08-24T01:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T01:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/7564\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T01:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T01:24:08","slug":"iran-war-spurs-global-race-for-5000-drone-killers-as-us-india-and-defence-giants-rethink-air-defence-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/7564\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran War Spurs Global Race for $5,000 Drone Killers as US, India and Defence Giants Rethink Air Defence Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Ukraine to the Middle East<\/p>\n

That distinction has become increasingly important as drones are launched not individually but in large salvos intended partly to overwhelm defences.<\/p>\n

The cost of shooting down drones<\/p>\n

$5,000: Guardian interceptor developed by Powerus<\/p>\n

$5,000: Starting cost of Neros\u2019 Bandit interceptor<\/p>\n

$126,500: Estimated cost of Raytheon\u2019s Coyote interceptor<\/p>\n

$2 million: Expected cost of Lockheed Martin\u2019s planned lower-cost interceptor<\/p>\n

~$4 million: Approximate cost of a PAC-3 interceptor<\/p>\n

3,000 a month: Current Powerus-affiliated interceptor production<\/p>\n

15,000 a month: Powerus global production target by mid-2027<\/p>\n

THE NEW EQUATION: Use cheaper weapons against mass-produced drones \u2014 and save sophisticated interceptors for ballistic missiles and other high-end threats.<\/p>\n

The mathematics of drone warfare<\/p>\n

From 3,000 to 15,000 a month<\/p>\n

Defence giants are changing too<\/p>\n

A lesson likely to outlast the war<\/p>\n

\"Stephen<\/a><\/p>\n

A Senior Associate Editor with more than 30 years in the media, Stephen N.R. curates, edits and publishes impactful stories for Gulf News \u2014 both in print and online \u2014 focusing on Middle East politics, student issues and explainers on global topics. <\/p>\n

Stephen has spent most of his career in journalism, working behind the scenes \u2014 shaping headlines, editing copy and putting together newspaper pages with precision. <\/p>\n

For the past many years, he has brought that same dedication to the Gulf News digital team, where he curates stories, crafts explainers and helps keep both the web and print editions sharp and engaging. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Ukraine to the Middle East That distinction has become increasingly important as drones are launched not individually…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4494,14,139,4495],"class_list":["post-7564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-americas","tag-defence-industry","tag-iran","tag-us-israel-iran-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}