Iran has used armed drones both directly and through allied militant groups to attack U.S. interests and neighboring countries across the Middle East for years. In 2019, drones struck Saudi Arabia's major oil facilities, an attack officially claimed by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels but blamed on Iran by the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Iran-backed militias have repeatedly launched drones and rockets at U.S. military bases in Iraq and Syria, including a January 2024 attack on a U.S. base in Jordan that killed three American service members and wounded 47 others. Iran has also used drones in direct attacks against Israel, including a massive April 2024 assault involving more than 300 drones and missiles.
These attacks are part of Iran's broader strategy of using relatively inexpensive drones and allied militant groups to threaten U.S. forces, pressure regional governments and challenge American influence.
During numerous campaign stops in the recent midterm election season, President Donald Trump boasted that the U.S. military has completely destroyed Iran's air force and navy, pointing out that the 159 of its navy ships are at the bottom of the ocean.
But the U.S. has also reportedly lost up to 81 aircraft and drones in the war with Iran, and Iran has still been able to launch missile and drone strikes against more than two dozen U.S. and allied military sites across eight Gulf states.
An October 31 Associated Press investigation found that Iranian forces and Iran-backed militias had carried out more than 115 drone or missile strikes that damaged or destroyed structures at 26 U.S. military bases and other sites through August. That is a count of damaging strikes, not all launches.
These high-volume, low-cost Shahed drones are wreaking havoc in the Middle East, forcing the U.S. and its partners to expend scarce, multimillion-dollar interceptors and rapidly depleting regional stockpiles of Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missiles.
The systems can work together to create multiple layers of protection. THAAD attempts to destroy incoming ballistic missiles at higher altitudes, while Patriot can engage threats that get closer to the ground. This gives U.S. forces and their regional allies more than one opportunity to stop an attack.
But Bob Maginnis says the U.S. is developing cheaper ways to deal with drones.
"Why waste a million-dollar missile on a $30 drone?" he poses. "We do have those capabilities, and those are coming to fruition all the time."
Noting that the Ukrainians have prompted some developments and that the U.S. has lasers that are working, Maginnis says, "Counter-drone capabilities are being fielded."
Meanwhile, replenishing vital anti-aircraft and missile inventories is not easy.
"If you look at some of the reporting, we cannot stand up a Patriot production factory overnight. Those take years and years," the expert explains. "I know the Pentagon has made a seven-year request to up the ante of making up to 2,000 a year, but that doesn't happen overnight."
Even though he does not think America currently has the inventory to deal with Iran's drones, Maginnis asserts that "in time, we will."
