America's military has an Iranian drone problem [View all]

The U.S. military and its allies across the Middle East are struggling to combat Iran’s swarms of cheap attack drones as the war enters its second week.

Pentagon officials this past week reportedly conceded in closed-door briefings with lawmakers that waves of Iranian-launched drones are punching through air defenses, leaving American troops and bases in the Persian Gulf region vulnerable to attacks. Six Americans have already been killed in a drone strike.

To combat Iran’s Shahed 136 drones — a relatively inexpensive weapon that costs around $20,000 to quickly produce — America’s armed forces are bleeding costly Patriot and THAAD interceptors that take years and millions of dollars to build.

President Trump on Friday met with major defense contractors — including Lockheed Martin, the maker of THAAD, and Raytheon, which produces Patriots — during which he claimed they agreed to quadruple production of so-called exquisite class weaponry. But even with a ramped-up building schedule, such weapons can take up to two years to finish, with defense experts warning the Iranian drone attacks could disrupt the Persian Gulf region for weeks into months and drain American munitions stockpiles.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/america-s-military-has-an-iranian-drone-problem/ar-AA1XJHzv