The US can’t keep building and buying expensive weapons that are vulnerable to cheap drones that are a fraction of the cost, the Army secretary said.
“We keep creating and purchasing these exquisite machines that very cheap drones can take out,” Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll said during an episode of the War on the Rocks podcast that aired on Tuesday.
“If the number is even remotely right, that Russia has manufactured 1 million drones in the last 12 months, that just makes us have to rethink the cost of what we’re buying,” he continued.
“We are the wealthiest nation, perhaps in the history of the world, but even we can’t sustain a couple-million-dollar piece of equipment that can be taken out with an $800 drone and munition,” he said.
Driscoll was responding to a question about whether the US military is walking away from the Robotic Combat Vehicle. He said that while the concept was valuable, the actual cost ratio didn’t work.
Driscoll’s remarks come as the US military has been watching the war in Ukraine, where cheap drones packed with explosives are damaging or destroying expensive combat equipment like tanks, armored vehicles, air defenses, and even warships, highlighting the vulnerability of larger and more prized weapons that are insufficiently defended.
The proliferation of cheap drones — some of which cost as little as a few hundred dollars, significantly less than more sophisticated weaponry — has become a growing concern for the US military as it readies for a potential large-scale confrontation between NATO and Russia in Europe or a fight with China in the Pacific.
Moscow said it produced 1.5 million drones last year. A Ukrainian tank commander said Russian drones are a major threat to his American-made M1 Abrams tank, which costs around $10 million.
Ukraine has outfitted its Abrams tanks and other systems, including European-made tanks and American-made armored fighting vehicles, with additional armor to protect the expensive equipment from drones, but it’s not a perfect solution.
Armored vehicle losses in this war have been high. Ukraine, for example, has lost over 4,400 armored vehicles, while Russia has lost more than 12,600, according to Oryx, an open-source intelligence site that tracks military equipment losses on both sides.
And drones aren’t just a threat to land assets. Ukrainian naval drones packed with explosives have wreaked havoc on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. These drones have even been upgraded to launch missiles. One managed to take down two of Russia’s $50 million Su-30 fighter jets over the weekend.
