Cheap Iranian drone attacks are forcing the Pentagon to rapidly expand layered air defenses in the Middle East, as thousands of U.S. troops stationed across the region face an escalating aerial threat that is testing the limits of traditional missile defenses.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said Tuesday its air defenses detected nine ballistic missiles and 35 drones launched by Iran. Eight missiles were intercepted while one fell into the sea.Â
Of the 35 drones, 26 were shot down and nine crashed on UAE soil, the country said.Â
The engagement highlights how the battlefield is shifting.Â
Ballistic missiles travel high and fast, allowing long-range interceptors such as the Patriot air defense system and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD) to engage them predictably. Drone swarms, which Iran increasingly has relied on in recent exchanges, present a different challenge to U.S. forces.
They fly lower, move slower and often arrive in clusters, making them harder to detect and more likely to strain defenses built for high-speed threats.
U.S. troops already have been directly affected by one-way attack drones in the region. In a March 1 strike near Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, six American service members were killed and dozens wounded when an Iranian drone hit a tactical operations center.Â
Each interception also carries a cost.Â
High-end missile interceptors can run into the millions of dollars per shot.Â
Many of the drones they are designed to defeat are far cheaper and produced in large numbers â creating what defense officials have described as a growing “math problem” in modern warfare. The U.S. can end up firing expensive missiles at relatively inexpensive drones, a dynamic that becomes harder to sustain if attacks come in waves.
That imbalance is accelerating a push inside the Pentagon to expand a layered counter-drone strategy â combining short-range interceptors, electronic warfare tools and emerging technologies such as high-energy lasers.
For U.S. forces in the region, larger drone waves increase the odds that defenses are stretched, and that even one drone could reach a base or ship.
This marks the first sustained confrontation in which U.S. forces are facing large-scale, state-backed drone waves as a central feature of the battlefield â forcing commanders to adapt in real time and draw on lessons learned from Ukraine, where mass-produced Shahed drones reshaped air defense strategy.
Among the new U.S. systems drawing renewed attention are high-energy lasers.
Directed energy is being developed and tested for counter-drone missions and has been used in limited domestic contexts.Â
U.S. defense officials say lasers offer a potentially significant advantage: Once powered, they can fire repeatedly without expending traditional ammunition.
Unlike missile interceptors, which must be replaced after each launch, a laser system can continue engaging targets as long as sufficient power is available. In theory, that provides sustained defensive capacity during large drone waves.
“Its a function now of our procurement system, moving those things to the troops as fast as we can,” retired Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan, former commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the U.S. 5th Fleet, told Fox News Digital.
Donegan acknowledged the technology is real but not yet fully fielded across combat zones.
Scaling high-energy systems requires power generation, integration and infrastructure â all of which take time.
A U.S. official confirmed to Fox News Digital directed energy systems have been tested and employed to counter drones in combat scenarios and the Pentagon “continues to work to scale this capability as quickly as possible.”
Central Command, the U.S. military command tasked with overseeing the Middle East, declined to comment on whether lasers are part of its current drone de
