In the years of war against Russia, Kiev has fielded a multilayer 'shield' with which it has been able to cost-effectively block the swarms of drones, the Iranian-made Shaled, that have been thrown at it by Moscow. Zelensky offers to swap drone interceptors for missiles
Most facilities are deep underground, hard to reach for most bombs except those carried by big bombers that are expensive to operate and a logistical nightmare in contested airspace, which Iran is at the moment.
The shaheds are also tiny, cheap and are built mostly from readily available components. As we’ve seen in Ukraine there are literally hundreds of designs, some made literally with cardboard, with new iterations seemingly every day.
Traditional air defense systems can be very easily overwhelmed by sheer number of incoming drones. Combine those with ballistic weapons and the mix is pretty much unstoppable with current means.
Most facilities are deep underground, hard to reach for most bombs except those carried by big bombers that are expensive to operate and a logistical nightmare in contested airspace, which Iran is at the moment.
The shaheds are also tiny, cheap and are built mostly from readily available components. As we’ve seen in Ukraine there are literally hundreds of designs, some made literally with cardboard, with new iterations seemingly every day.
Traditional air defense systems can be very easily overwhelmed by sheer number of incoming drones. Combine those with ballistic weapons and the mix is pretty much unstoppable with current means.