Ukraine Uses Much More Expensive Air Defense Missiles To Shoot Down Cheap Drones - NYT

To repel Russian drone attacks, the Ukrainian military uses missiles that are much more expensive than the drones themselves. This is reported by The New York Times.

It is noted that earlier Ukrainian forces used anti-aircraft guns and small arms to shoot down some drones. However, since the Russians have begun to launch attacks at night, they also rely on missiles launched from warplanes and from the ground. In particular, officials confirmed that Ukraine has repeatedly used surface-to-air missiles, known as NASAMS.

According to experts, Shahed-136 drones are relatively cheap, while the weapon system used to destroy them is much more expensive, the publication writes.

It is noted that the head of the Ukrainian consulting company Molfar Artem Starosik calculated that using a missile to shoot down a drone costs seven times more than launching it. Production of Iranian drones can cost USD 20,000, while the cost of launching one of the surface-to-air missiles used by Ukraine can range from USD 140,000 for the Soviet S-300 to USD 500,000 for NASAMS.

The publication notes that, according to some analysts, such an imbalance may later benefit Russia and cost Ukraine and its allies dearly.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on January 2, Air Force Command spokesman Yurii Ihnat reported that the Russian Federation most often uses Iranian Shahed drones to attempt to strike Kyiv.

On the night of January 2, 22 aerial targets were shot down in Kyiv during an air alert.

Also, on the night of January 2, Ukrainian air defense forces shot down a Kh-59 missile and 3 Shaheds in the sky over the Dnipropetrovsk Region.