Michael Hernandez
13 March 2026•Update: 13 March 2026
WASHINGTON
The US Army has sent 10,000 interceptor drones to the Middle East to help combat ongoing Iranian retaliatory strikes in the region, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said in remarks published Friday.
The AI-enabled Merops interceptor drones were sent to the region within five days of the US and Israel launching a surprise Feb. 28 attack on Iran, Driscoll said in an interview with Bloomberg News. The drones cost roughly $14,000 to $15,000 each, but Driscoll maintained that buying in bulk could reduce the per unit price to between $3,000 to $5,000.
The Merops drones were first sent to Ukraine in 2024 after being developed as part of a defense venture known as Project Eagle, which was supported by Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt.
That is cheaper than Iran's Shahed drones, which carry a price tag of roughly $20,000, according to Bloomberg. Other estimates on the cost of a Shahed vary, with some placing the price tag as high as $50,000 each, while others peg the price as low as $10,000.
“We’re actually on the better end of the cost curve there,” the army chief said. “So each time Iran launches one that we are able to take down, they are losing a meaningful amount of money.”
The US has been using, in part, expensive multi-million-dollar missiles to help defend against Iran's drone arsenal, but that has raised questions over the monetary calculus in shooting down a comparably cheap munition with a missile that can cost several million dollars each.
The disclosure of the US drone interceptor allocation came as questions over the price tag of the war continue to mount, as Iran's drones repeatedly sneak through US drone and missile defenses, resulting in casualties among US forces.
That includes a March 1 strike on a military post in Kuwait that killed six US service members. That attack has been blamed on an Iranian drone.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he has offered to send in advisers to aid in the US defense as his forces have spent years combating Iranian drones supplied to Russia, as well as variants that Moscow has produced based on Iranian designs.
US President Donald Trump said Friday that no such assistance was needed.
“No, we don’t need their help on drone defense,” Trump said during an interview with Fox News. “We know more about drones than anybody. We have the best drones in the world, actually
The US has also sought to bolster its air defenses with Bumblebee drones laden with explosives that are intended to smash into enemy UAVs.
