Army secretary: the United States cannot make weapons dear vulnerable to drones of $ 800

The United States cannot continue to build and buy costly weapons vulnerable to drones produced at a fraction of the cost, said the army secretary.

“We continue to create and buy these exquisite machines that very cheap drones can withdraw,” said army secretary Daniel Driscoll during an episode of the Podcast “War on the Rocks” which was broadcast on Tuesday.

“If the number is even from a distance, that Russia has manufactured 1 million drones in the last 12 months, it simply makes us rethink the cost of what we buy,” he continued.

“We are the richest nation, perhaps in the history of the world, but even we cannot maintain equipment of a few million dollars which can be withdrawn with a drone and an ammunition of $ 800,” he said.

Driscoll answered a question on the question of whether the American army was moving away from the robotic combat vehicle. He said that even if the concept was precious, the cost ratio did not work.

The American army watched the war in Ukraine, where cheap drones filled with explosives damage or destroy costly combat equipment such as tanks, other armored vehicles, air defenses and even warships, highlighting the vulnerability of larger and more precious weapons which are insufficiently defended.

The proliferation of cheap drones – some of which cost as little as a few hundred dollars – has become an increasing concern for the American army because it is preparing for the possibility of a large -scale confrontation between NATO and Russia in Europe or a fight with China in the Pacific.

Moscow said it had produced 1.5 million drones last year. A commander of Ukrainian tanks has described Russian drones a major threat to his US M1 M1 M1 reservoir, which costs around $ 10 million.

Ukraine has equipped its reservoirs and other Abrams systems, including European manufacturing tanks and armored American manufacturing vehicles, with additional armor to help protect the expensive drones equipment, but it is not a perfect solution.

The losses of armored vehicles in this war were raised. Ukraine, for example, has lost more than 4,400 armored vehicles, while Russia lost more than 12,600, according to Oryx, an open source intelligence site which follows the losses of military equipment on both sides.

And drones are not only a threat to terrestrial assets. Ukrainian naval drones filled with explosives have wreaked havoc on the Black Sea fleet of Russia. These drones were even upgraded to launch missiles. Ukraine said that one managed to eliminate two of the $ 50 million from Russian SU-30 hunters over the weekend.