Defeating Iranian drones means listening to Ukraine

ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Luke Zahner is a senior fellow and Robert Benson is the associate director for National Security and International Policy at the Center for American Progress.

As wars rage in the Middle East and Europe, Iranian drones are reshaping modern warfare — and some of the most important lessons about how to defeat them are coming from Ukraine.

Across the Middle East, Iranian-designed drones have threatened U.S. military and diplomatic installations, targeted commercial shipping, and probed the defenses of countries aligned with Washington. Small, relatively inexpensive, and easily launched in large numbers, these systems present a challenge traditional air-defense networks were never designed to confront.

The U.S. possesses enormous power to strike adversaries. Defending against swarms of low-cost drones, however, presents a different problem — one that militaries around the world still struggle to solve. Fortunately, the U.S. has a partner that has already been forced to confront this challenge in real combat: Ukraine.

For more than four years, Ukraine has defended its cities, energy infrastructure, and military forces against waves of Iranian-designed Shahed drones deployed by Russia. Ukrainian engineers and soldiers have developed new approaches to air defense, electronic warfare, and drone technology at remarkable speed — and those innovations are beginning to produce results.

According to Ukrainian commanders, Ukraine has begun deploying highly specialized first-person-view (FPV) interceptor drones designed to destroy Shahed drones in midair. Early reporting suggests these systems have achieved interception rates approaching 70%.

Far from lacking leverage, Ukraine is rapidly becoming a hinge point for defensive warfighting. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently confirmed that the U.S. has asked Kyiv for assistance in countering Iranian-designed Shahed drones in the Middle East — an unusual reversal that illustrates how Ukraine’s hard-won battlefield experience is now informing American defense planning.

This experience highlights a reality often overlooked in debates about support for Kyiv: the U.S.–Ukraine relationship is not simply a flow of assistance in one direction. It is a strategic partnership that benefits both countries.

Ukraine today represents one of the world’s most active laboratories for modern warfare. On its battlefields, drones, electronic warfare systems and digital networks are evolving at a pace rarely seen in military history. Ukrainian units have pioneered the integration of unmanned systems into nearly every aspect of their military operations — from reconnaissance and targeting to logistics and precision strike.

For the U.S., maintaining a close partnership with Ukraine provides something invaluable: access to real-world insights about the future of warfare. The drone threats Ukraine faces today are already appearing in other regions. Iranian systems and similar unmanned aircraft are proliferating across the Middle East and beyond. Cheap drones can now threaten far more expensive military equipment, critical infrastructure, and commercial shipping routes. Regional partners like the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are now exploring the purchase of Ukrainian anti-drone technology developed in response to Russia’s use of Shahed drones. Learning how to defend against these technologies will be a defining challenge for modern militaries.

Ukraine has already been forced to confront this reality. Its engineers and soldiers have developed layered defenses that combine electronic warfare, mobile air-defense teams, and low-cost interceptor drones designed to destroy incoming UAVs. These solutions emerged from necessity and have been refined through constant combat experience, making them particularly valuable for American planners.

Partnership with Ukraine also reinforces one of America’s greatest strategic advantages: its network of alliances. Throughout modern history, the U.S. has been strongest when it works alongside capable partners. Alliances are not simply mechanisms for burden-sharing. They are engines of learning and innovation, allowing the U.S. to draw on the experience of partners confronting different threats around the world.

Ukraine’s war has accelerated that process dramatically. Prototypes can move from design to combat deployment in weeks rather than years — exactly the kind of rapid iteration many defense experts believe will define the future of warfare.

The U.S. brings complementary strengths to this partnership. America possesses the world’s most advanced research institutions, an unrivaled defense industrial base, and unmatched global logistics capabilities. When those capabilities combine with Ukraine’s battlefield-driven innovation, they create powerful strategic synergies.

Supporting Ukraine’s defense accomplishes more than helping a partner resist aggression; it ensures the U.S. remains closely connected to one of the most dynamic centers of military innovation anywhere in the world. At a moment when new technologies are transforming the character of conflict, those connections matter more than ever.

Far from a one-way street, the U.S.–Ukraine relationship represents a partnership in which each side contributes strengths the other needs. In an era of rapid technological change and evolving security challenges, that partnership may prove to be one of America’s most valuable strategic advantages.