Top military officials told lawmakers in a closed door briefing on Tuesday that they may not be able to shoot down every Iranian drone being launched against US military installations and assets in retaliatory attacks, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The officials, led by the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Dan Caine, said Iran has been deploying thousands of one-way attack drones and while they have capacity to take down the vast majority but not all of the barrage.
As a result, the officials said in a classified briefing for lawmakers on Capitol Hill, the US was focused on destroying the launch sites for the drones and conventional missiles as quickly as possible. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details.
In retaliation against US strikes, Iran has been launching its low-cost, one-way attack Shahed drones. By flying low and slow, the drones are seen to be better able to evade conventional air defenses than ballistic missiles.
We’re 50+ years on from Vietnam we’re 30 years on from drones, we’re 3-5 years on from one way drones. The idea of war has changed pretty even in the last five years. The pace of military innovation is starting to reflect the speed of big tech.
While this will be contradictory to the tech folks, I don’t love the future where drone warfare is cheap and easy simply because drone warfare is cheap and easy….war should never be cheap or easy it cheapens the cost, war should always cost blood to make it unpalatable