"Drones are no longer exquisite tools of counterterrorism and have evolved into something far more common and destabilizing: cheap, expendable, and mass-produced tools of attrition."
"These platforms aren't winning wars outright, but they are doing something just as important: straining defenses, exhausting budgets, and outlasting the very systems that were designed to counter them."
"The new drone war runs on a simple, ruthless logic: cheap beats expensive. Take Iran's drones. They are simple by conventional standards-noisy, slow, and not particularly precise-yet brutally effective."
The era of U.S. drones as precise counterterrorism tools has ended, giving way to cheap, expendable drones that reshape modern warfare. These drones, while not winning wars outright, strain defenses and exhaust budgets. The U.S. is unprepared for this shift, as adversaries utilize drones effectively. The new logic of warfare favors quantity over quality, with adversaries like Iran deploying simple yet effective drones that overwhelm defenses. This evolution in drone warfare challenges long-held military assumptions and strategies.
Read at The Cipher Brief
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