The U.S. Army is urgently deploying counter-drone systems to the Middle East that were previously battle-tested in Ukraine. The Wall Street Journal reports.
A small number of Merops air-defense systems are being transferred from U.S. military stockpiles in Europe together with American service personnel. The systems were developed by the U.S. company Perennial Autonomy, which has ties to Google.
Last year the United States and its allies had already deployed several Merops systems in Poland and Romania after incidents in which Russian drones crossed the borders of those countries. According to U.S. officials, the system demonstrated high effectiveness and quickly gained popularity among Ukrainian troops.
As WSJ notes, the use of technologies tested on the Ukrainian battlefield is gradually becoming a new approach for the U.S. military.
According to the newspaper, Ukraine has effectively turned into a testing ground for defense technologies that are now being used in the new war against Iran—above all to repel attacks by Shahed-type drones.
Each Merops system costs less than $10,000—far cheaper than the systems currently used to intercept missiles and drones.