(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Seong-han = The security landscape of the Middle East is rapidly changing as Iran goes to war with the United States and uses the Shahed suicide drone to bomb cities and infrastructure in the Persian Gulf region.
Gulf countries are pouring astronomical amounts of money into building drone defense networks, and even Ukraine, which has accumulated four years of experience in drone warfare, is jumping into exporting drones to the Middle East.
On the 16th (local time), Bloomberg News reported on the response of Middle Eastern countries worried about Iranian drone strikes and that countries, including the United States, are fiercely competing to export drone defense networks.
Since the outbreak of the US-Iran war, the size of export contracts to the Middle East signed by global defense companies such as Anduril Industries and RTX of the US, Rheinmetall of Germany, and EOS of Australia has exceeded $5 billion (approximately 6.6 trillion won).
“Gulf countries are investing virtually unlimited funds,” said Andreas Krieg, a security studies professor at King’s College London who also serves as a military adviser to Qatar. “We are witnessing the largest spending boom in Gulf defense history.”
Gulf countries invested more than $5 billion in building air defense systems for decades even before the U.S.-Iran war, but most of it was focused on ballistic missile defense, such as RTX's Patriot missile and Lockheed Martin's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.
However, the Iranian Shahed drone is more of a low-cost cruise missile and flies with a propeller.
By flying slowly and low, they bypass radar networks, change direction mid-flight, and dozens of aircraft can maneuver simultaneously.
While the price of one Shahed is only $30,000 (approximately 40 million won), the state-of-the-art Patriot missile (PAC-3) to capture it costs over $4 million (approximately 5.3 billion won) per missile.
Bloomberg Businessweek estimated that the United States and its Gulf allies launched at least 2,500 Patriot missiles to intercept drones, spending at least $10 billion (about 13 trillion won).
As a temporary measure, some Gulf countries deploy Apache attack helicopters and fire machine guns to capture Shahed drones.
From the perspective of the Gulf countries, it is becoming a war of economic attrition, but it is a golden opportunity for Western defense companies that produce air defense systems.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), etc., which have been struggling due to a lack of air defense missiles despite the Iranian airstrikes, are turning their attention to Turkey and Ukraine in addition to traditional Western countries, with the goal of going beyond weapons purchases to local joint production and military self-reliance.
Ukrainian defense companies, which have gained practical experience during the four-year war with Russia, are aiming to enter the Middle East market despite the barrier of their country's wartime export restrictions.
Gulf countries are said to be very interested in importing the entire 'air defense network concept' itself, which combines sensors, software, electronic warfare equipment, and skilled operators accumulated by Ukraine in actual combat.
Ukraine is concluding defense industry cooperation agreements with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar, but the extent to which commercial contracts have actually been concluded has not been disclosed.
Bloomberg interpreted that “the anti-drone defense network market is rapidly expanding beyond the government and military into the private sector.”
Powerhouse, a drone manufacturer invested in by President Donald Trump's son, has signed an undisclosed contract to protect oil and gas infrastructure.
Eric Prince, founder of private military company Blackwater, also founded a private air defense venture with Ukrainian drone software company Swarmer.
“There are civilian facilities in need of defense everywhere, such as data centers, logistics hubs, and oil refineries,” said Brett Velicovich, co-founder and president of Powerhouse. “In the future, the commercial drone market will be larger than the military market,” he predicted.
Bloomberg quoted Robert Kolast, a ground warfare researcher at the Royal Joint Military Institute (RUSI) in London, as saying, "While Ukrainian companies are looking to leverage the country's expertise in defeating drones, Western competitors are trying to corner the market before they get the chance."
