A soldier launches the Merops counter-drone system from the bed of a truck during testing and training on Nov. 18, 2025, at a Polish military training area in Nowa Deba. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
NOWA DEBA, Poland — U.S. soldiers are training alongside Polish and Romanian forces on a counter-drone system rushed to NATO’s eastern flank after a recent spate of unmanned aerial incursions across Europe.
U.S. and NATO officials, drawing lessons from the war in Ukraine, have long argued that the alliance needs cheaper ways to counter drones, since firing traditional air-defense systems at them is too expensive and often impractical. That urgency grew after about 20 unmanned aircraft crossed into Polish airspace in September, followed days later by an incursion into Romania.
NATO blamed Russia for those violations, which proved to be the final push for Poland and Romania to purchase the U.S.-made Merops counter-drone system.
The system has been battle-tested in Ukraine, where local forces have used it to shoot down Russian-made Shahed drones and other incoming threats, according to U.S. military officials.
Poland and Romania received their first Merops systems this month, and training alongside U.S. soldiers began here at one of Poland’s largest military training areas a little over a week ago.
“It’s very lethal, very effective, but the key piece here is that it’s cost effective,” said Brig. Gen. Curtis King, head of the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command.
A U.S. soldier preps the Merops counter-drone system for testing at a Polish military training area in Nowa Deba on Nov. 18, 2025. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
During a demonstration Tuesday, the Merops system sat in the back of a midsize pickup truck. Once launched, its interceptor shot through the air at speeds officials said exceeded 150 mph, identifying drones and passing within feet of them in flight.
Officials said that in a real-life scenario, the interceptor would carry explosives and detonate to destroy its target. Each interceptor costs about $15,000, and the system overall is roughly one-tenth the price of the Shahed drones Moscow builds and employs, they said.
That matters because, until now, responding to incursions often meant scrambling NATO fighter jets, which cost tens of thousands of dollars per flight. And in a conflict like the one playing out in Ukraine, large numbers of interceptors would be needed to counter repeated drone swarms.
A soldier prepares to launch the Merops counter-drone system from the bed of a truck during testing and training on Nov. 18, 2025, at a Polish military training area in Nowa Deba. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
Another advantage of Merops, made by the company Project Eagle, is its ability to use artificial intelligence to navigate even when satellite and electronic communications are jammed, according to the company.
“This is one of many capabilities that NATO nations are going to have to look to employ to defeat the drones,” King said, adding that the war in Ukraine shows how quickly modern warfare evolves and how weapons development must keep pace.
U.S. Army Europe and Africa says Merops is the first system fielded since the announcement of the Eastern Flank Deterrence Line, a concept unveiled earlier this year by commander Gen. Christopher Donahue. The plan envisions a mix of manned and robotic forces linked by a shared data network to repel any attack on NATO territory.
Under the concept, low-cost, easily replaceable hardware and software feed live targeting data to front-line robotic platforms, which can strike enemy drones and ground forces while absorbing the first wave of an assault. The goal is to deter an attack or blunt one long enough for NATO’s manned units to regain the initiative and launch a counteroffensive.
Army officials say the approach is meant to be scalable and repeatable across the eastern flank, using rapidly deployable technologies that can overwhelm an adversary and deny key terrain.
It’s one of several efforts being pushed in Europe to counter future drone attacks, as the U.S. and its allies scramble to find effective, affordable solutions.
American, Polish and Romanian soldiers observe testing of the Merops counter-drone system on Nov. 18, 2025, at a Polish military training area in Nowa Deba. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
Brig. Gen. Curtis King, head of the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command and Brig. Chris Gent, deputy chief of staff of Transformation and Integration at NATO LANDCOM, speak to reporters at a Merops counter-drone system demonstration in Nowa Deba, Poland, Nov. 18, 2025. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and)
Speaking on the sidelines of the training Tuesday, Lt. Gen. Stanislaw Czosnek, deputy chief of the general staff of the Polish armed forces, said Poland plans eventually to field its own domestically built counter-drone systems but needed a quick solution to fill an immediate capability gap.
“The airspace violation we witnessed recently forced us to accelerate,” Czosnek said. “We want to be safer than we are now. This is a gap filler.”
Merops’ success on the battlefield in Ukraine was a major reason why Poland selected the platform, Czosnek said.
According to King, Merops has been responsible for up to 40% of the Shahed drones shot down by Ukrainian forces. He added that other counter-drone systems are being developed across the alliance that rely on similar radar, with the goal of allowing partners to operate different systems interchangeably.
Sgt. 1st Class Corey Myers, a platoon sergeant with Germany-based 1st Battalion, 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, said he and his soldiers found the system intuitive.
“It’s a simple system to understand,” Myers said. “If you’re good with an Xbox controller, you’re good.”
The U.S. military does not currently field Merops, but U.S. Army Europe and Africa sent troops to the roughly two-week training event in Poland so they can help train partner forces who adopt it in the future.
Denmark, which also reported drone sightings in September, is planning to purchase Merops technology, The Associated Press reported this month.
“It feels extremely important being here,” said Sgt. Riley Hiner, another member of 1-57. “With all the Shaheds Russia is flying, I think this is the way forward.”
A Merops interceptor gets within feet of a target mid-air during a demonstration at Nowa Deba, Poland, Nov. 18, 2025. U.S. military officials said in actual combat, the interceptor would blow up and destroy the target. The Merops has been used to down a substantial percentage of Russian Shahed drones in Ukraine, officials say. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
A Merops interceptor sits on the ground before being shot into the air during a demonstration of the system’s drone-on-drone capabilities at Nowa Deba, Poland, Nov. 18, 2025. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)
