The U.S. military just deployed a new class of low-cost drones in combat for the first time. By “low-cost” drones, it means these aren’t your standard fighter jets or precision missiles. They are

Iran's Shahed drones reshaped conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East, Russia uses them heavily, and the US is now fielding its own version.

Iran has launched waves of Shahed drones to menace Persian Gulf nations. The U.S. has unleashed its own copycat on Iran. It’s a sign of how war is changing.

The US and Iran are trading blows in the Gulf with a simple drone that costs as little as $50,000 to make. But why is a slow, cheap and relatively primitive drone seeing use in 2026 alongside hypersonic missiles and stealth jets?

Ukraine’s military has contracted 1.8 million drones worth nearly UAH 147 billion for 2024-2025, a procurement surge that captures a broader global reality: cheap, mass-produced unmanned systems and the AI software guiding them are advancing faster than global negotiations and many existing policy frameworks can keep up with.

What to know about Iran’s cheap, noisy Shahed drones and the expensive defense systems trying to stop them. By Farah Stockman The United States is dominating the skies above Iran. But math is not necessarily on America’s side.

As the U.S. and its allies face Iran’s response to President Donald Trump’s renewed bombardment of the Middle East, the allied air forces must find a solution to a growing problem: drones.

Ukraine is mass-producing cheap interceptor drones to destroy Russian Shahed attack drones, and the results are already reshaping the cost calculus of air defense. The Defence Procurement Agency has contracted over UAH 3 billion in interceptor drones,