Iran uses low-cost UAVs to drive up US defense costs, drone CEO says

Iran is waging a massive drone campaign in the Middle East, unleashing low-cost, one-way attack aircraft, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), against Western-aligned targets to impose “exponentially increasing costs on the United States,” a defense expert said.

Tehran has reportedly launched thousands of attacks. King drones Cameron Chell, CEO of the drone maker and technology company, said that media across the region and in Iran have shared images of the underground stockpiles. DragonflyHe said Iran’s strategy was designed to push high-level defenses against cheap air threats.

“Even a hundred of these drones in the hands of a decentralized entity could cause never-before-imagined terror in a neighboring country,” Chell told Fox News Digital. “The Iranians cannot win the war with these UAVs, but they can win the war like the Iranians.” [communist] Viet Cong [during the Vietnam War]”They have an asymmetric capability that can prolong this war and create political pressure.”

“By having to target these small, very hard-to-detect drone units, Iran could direct terrorism in unimaginable ways and cause exponential costs on the U.S. side,” he added.

Chell’s warning comes amid rising tensions following Saturday’s joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran that targeted nuclear facilities, missile sites and leaders that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several commanders.

Iranian drones’ attack on a tactical center in Kuwait earlier this week proved deadly, killing six US soldiers.

A CIA station at the US Embassy in the Saudi capital Riyadh was hit by an Iranian drone strike on Tuesday, causing a limited fire but no injuries reported.

An example of an Iranian Shahid-class unidirectional attack drone used by the regime to attack US and Israeli sites in the Middle East. (Getty Images)

In Bahrain, drones identified as Iranian Shahed models reportedly crashed into the upper floors of the Era View Tower in Manama, about a mile from the US Navy base.

While an Iranian drone attacked the parking lot in front of the US Consulate in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates announced that it prevented Iran’s missiles and drone attacks targeting the country.

“Based on the engine sound, apparent angle of attack, and implied speed, to my knowledge this was a Shahed-class unidirectional attack drone,” Chell said of the Dubai consulate attack video, suggesting the drone footage showed “a Shahed 191.”

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A large fire and cloud of smoke was seen after the wreckage of an Iranian-intercepted drone crashed into the Fujairah oil facility in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, on Tuesday, according to officials. (Altaf Kadri/AP Photo)

Fars News Agency also published images purporting to show large numbers of attack UAVs stored in vast underground tunnels in Iran.

The video showed rows of triangular-shaped drones atop rocket launchers, missiles lined up toward a launch vehicle, and walls decorated with Iranian flags and photos of Khamenei. The outlet stated that the timing and location of the video were not confirmed.

“It is difficult to verify that Iran has the capacity to produce these drones in these volumes in wartime,” Chell said of the stockpile images.

“As long as they produced them in these numbers, a significant portion would have to be delivered to Russia, which does not seem impossible. However, the drones in the underground propaganda video are Shahed 191 drones.”

IRAN’S ‘TOP TARGET’ WAS HIT WITH A 10 MILLION DOLLAR PRECISION ATTACK, US KAMIKAZE UAVS WERE USED TO ‘GROW’

Images from the Iranian state-run FARS News Agency allegedly show rows of unmanned aerial vehicles stored underground. (FARS News Agency Telegraph)

A new report from Carnegie Endowment for International Peace He highlighted Chell’s comments about expense and spacing.

“Iran is currently using a mix of ballistic missiles and attack drones,” senior expert Dara Massicot said. “The methods are effective, but targeting drones in this way is resource-intensive and expensive and will lead to rapid depletion of certain types of interceptors.”

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“Ground-based air defense interceptor missiles are not infinite, and the United States and its partners and allies have faced stockpiling challenges in this area for years,” he added.

Another senior researcher, Steve Feldstein, added: “An important point is that the world is entering a new era of drone warfare as drones proliferate on the battlefield in conflicts both large and small.”

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