Shooting Down Russian Drones in Poland Cost NATO Millions During the incursion by Russian drones into Poland, NATO aircraft used expensive AIM-120C-7 missiles to destroy them.

Militarnyi All ^ | September 11, 2025 | Taras Safronov

[daniel1212]

NATO’s tactic of using AMRAAM missiles against cheap decoy drones, the Gerbera, in the event of a large-scale war could lead to a rapid depletion of weapons stockpiles.

The exact “net” price of these missiles is not disclosed. However, an analysis of contracts for sales to US allies shows that their cost ranges between $1.5 and $2 million....

In 2017, the Netherlands agreed to sell 26 AIM-120C-7 AMRAAM missiles under a contract worth $53 million. This amounts to approximately $2 million per unit, excluding additional components of the deal (gross)....

In 2019, the U.S. State Department approved the sale of 180 AIM-120C-7 missiles to Hungary under a contract worth $500 million.

At this price, one missile could cost about $2.7 million. At the same time, the deal also included a variety of related equipment and services, which accounted for a significant portion of the total contract amount...

The Russian Gerbera drones launched in Poland are decoys, not attack drones. Their task is to detect air defense positions and force the enemy to spend expensive anti-aircraft missiles.

“The Gerbera is a cheap drone made of expanded polystyrene. Its interior is lined with plywood. It is called a simplified version of the Iranian Shahed-136 kamikaze drone....

The drone has a minimal set of equipment: one engine and fuel tanks made of flexible multilayer polymer material. It does not have a camera...

For comparison, according to the documents of the Iranian company Sahara Thunder, which signed agreements with Russia for the supply of Shahed-136, one Shahed costs approximately $200,000. The price was later reduced due to the localization of production in Russia...

However, even shooting down Shaheds with AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles will quickly deplete the stockpile of these expensive aircraft munitions.

With this in mind, inexpensive anti-drone systems are becoming one of the key areas of development in many countries.
 

South Korea Begins Development of Electronic Warfare Aircraft to Suppress Enemy Air Defenses

Construction of a Hypersonic Weapons Manufacturing Facility Begins in the United State

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; History; Military/Veterans; Travel
KEYWORDS: azovrecruitersonline; drones; irael; iran; islam; sendanothertrillion

[crusty old prospector]

Sounds like they just need some skeet shooters.

[HombreSecreto]

why can’t they use a cheap drone to shoot down a cheap drone?

Or is that not desirable by the Military-Industrial Complex?

[greenbrier]

Or is that not desirable by the Military-Industrial Complex?

[Vermont Lt]

It’s called practice and demonstration.

You know the Russians were watching how we responding, with what, and from how far away.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

An interesting article, by a Ukrainian media outlet.

At the bottom of the page one finds:

Submit news or press releases: info@mil.in.ua | Advertising inquiries: ads@mil.in.ua

Their X account details:

The official English page of Militarnyi, Ukrainian military media http://militarnyi.com/en 👉🏻 Support us: ▫️paypal@mil.in.ua

The linked articles tell of work in South Korea, and the US ( referencing Defense Blog) towards hypersonic missile development.

[PIF]

Just Russia’s Phase Zero operations - best to let drone kill people rather than expend an expensive missile to destroy it. Russia uses drones to deliberate kill civilians, who just need to suck it up and die.

[Mouton]

When you are not paying for it, only the best will do.

[rdcbn1]

The waste of critical assets in the Ukraine debacle is obscene

We are using $1.1 million a pop AIM 120 AMRAAM to shoot down $20K Russian and Iranian junk drones

It takes years to ramp up AMRAAM production but they can crank out these POS drones by the thousands and ramp up production virtually overnight

Everyone is out of spare interceptors for the Patriot system and we never had enough THADS to go around in the first place

Even Germany is being forced to say enough is enough to Ukraine demands for Patriot systems

The Ukraine infrastructure is being systematically dismantled by Russian missile attacks and the only thing keeping them afloat is Trumps request to Putin to stand down long enough to give peace a chance