Struggling to fend off the swarms of Iranian drones and burning through extremely expensive patriot missile ammunition, the US has introduced its own cheap interceptor drone system in order to try and undo Iran’s cost-to-kill ratio advantage and put its military campaign on a more sustainable path.

The US is deploying the Merops counter-drone system to the Middle East after the platform reportedly demonstrated significant success in Ukraine, where it has allegedly shot down more than 1,000 drones since its introduction, according to Business Insider.

The system relies on a small interceptor drone known as Surveyor, which costs about $15,000 per unit and is designed to destroy incoming unmanned aerial vehicles. The traditional air defence systems like the Patriot PAC-3 interceptor missiles cost up to $4mn a piece and usually have to be fired in pairs to ensure a successful hit.

The Merops platform was developed with funding from Eric Schmidt, billionaire technology investor and former chief executive officer of Google, through his Project Eagle initiative. The programme has focused on accelerating the development of low-cost autonomous defence technologies designed to counter the growing use of inexpensive drones on the battlefield.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has offered Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries to swap Ukraine’s advanced interceptor drone technology in exchange for their PAC-3 missile ammo. Having survived a brutal winter where Russian President Vladimir Putin attempted to freeze Ukraine into submission, Ukraine’s stocks of PAC-3 ammo is running very low, leaving the skies open to Russian missiles. With US producers running a four-year long backlog of orders and European stocks also virtually depleted, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) is becoming increasingly desperate for fresh supplies of Patriot interceptor missiles.

According to several Western media reports, the Merops system was first deployed by the AFU in June 2024 as part of Kyiv’s effort to counter large-scale Russian drone attacks. Ukrainian forces have increasingly relied on layered air defence systems combining traditional missile-based platforms with cheaper drone interceptors to address the growing cost imbalance between expensive air defence missiles and low-cost attack drones.

US Army Brigadier General Curtis King, commander of the 10th Air and Missile Defence Command, said the Merops system has been responsible for a significant share of Ukrainian drone interceptions. According to King, it accounted for 40% of the Geranium-type unmanned aerial vehicles shot down.

The deployment to the Middle East comes as US forces and regional allies face increasing threats from drones used by state and non-state actors, prompting military planners to look for more cost-effective solutions to defend bases and critical infrastructure against large swarms of inexpensive unmanned systems.