Experts Compare Arabian Peninsula Air Defense Against Iranian Drones to 'Killing a Mosquito with a Bazooka'
Center for Analysis of World Arms Trade highlights severe cost discrepancy between Iranian strike drones and US air defense systems.
Quick Look
Experts criticize Arabian Peninsula missile defense architecture, highlighting the massive cost gap between cheap Iranian Shahed drones and multi-million dollar US interceptors amid ongoing regional conflict.
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Why It Matters
The US and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28, targeting major cities and killing key leadership, prompting retaliatory strikes.
MOSCOW, August 17. /TASS/. The repulsion of Iranian drone attacks by countries on the Arabian Peninsula was like killing a mosquito with a bazooka, given the significant difference in cost between Iran’s strike drones and the air defense systems of US allies, experts of the Center for Analysis of World Arms Trade told the National Defense monthly.
"To a large extent, the problems with the Arabian missile defense and air defense systems stem from their 'US-centric' architecture. Due to the nature of US military doctrine, they have little interest in medium-range, let alone short-range, air defense systems. Their priority is long-range systems. Designed to address the challenges the US Army faces, these systems and complexes are also actively promoted for export to countries that face a different type of threat. In these cases, the use of THAAD and Patriot is similar to ‘killing a mosquito with a bazooka’," the experts said.
The Center for Analysis of World Arms Trade compared the cost of a single anti-aircraft guided missile to that of a single Shahed strike drone to illustrate this. "However, the main challenge for countries in the Arabian Peninsula is the enormous gap between the cost of attack weapons and interceptors. While an Iranian Shahed-136 kamikaze drone costs between $20,000 and $50,000, a PAC-3 missile costs $4 million and an AMRAAM-ER costs $3 million," the report stressed.
The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. The White House justified the attack by citing alleged missile and nuclear threats from Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also hit. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some other key Iranian leaders were killed in the joint US-Israeli attack.
Open Questions
- How will Arabian Peninsula states adapt their defense procurement?
- What are the long-term economic sustainability metrics for missile defense?
