The Gulf nations danger working out of provides of interceptor missiles. Anti-drone programs developed by Ukraine are being studied | EUROtoday

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Low price interceptor drones to shoot down Iranian Shaheds diving into the territory of the Gulf nations. Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has made clear, is able to provide its domestically produced interceptor drones to Middle Eastern nations in alternate for the US-made air protection missiles that Kiev desperately wants. Ukraine wants US PAC-3 missiles to counter cruise and ballistic missile assaults by Russian forces. Kiev has developed low-cost and environment friendly interceptors to fight Iranian-made Shahed drones utilized by Russia. Middle Eastern nations are utilizing the identical US surface-to-air missiles to defend themselves from Iranian assaults. «If they provide us (the air protection missiles), we are going to give them our interceptors. This is a good alternate,” Zelensky assured.

Five days after the operation launched by the USA and Israel against Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain find themselves facing waves of drone attacks piloted by the Islamic Republic. Hundreds of drones, as many if not more than ballistic missiles, also with the aim of exhausting the air defenses of the countries it is fighting against. Attacks that are putting pressure on the defenses of the United States and their partners, from Bahrain to the United Arab Emirates, significantly affecting weapons supplies, starting with interceptor missiles.

The first move was made by the USA: just eight months after its presentation, Washington chose war with Iran to deploy the new low-cost kamikaze drone “Lucas” in combat for the first time. The ‘Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System’ drone (hence the acronym Lucas) is produced by Arizona-based SpektreWorks and was presented in July 2025, when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth paraded in the Pentagon courtyard with more than a dozen companies competing to provide the army with new equipment, Reuters explains on its website, recalling how central UAVs have become in modern warfare after their effective use in Ukraine. It is no coincidence that Centcom USA stated that the Lucas drones are modeled on the Iranian-made Shahed used extensively by Russia in the invasion against Kiev. The rapid fielding of the Lucas represents a change from the Pentagon’s traditional procurement timelines, which typically last years from initial development to operational deployment. The drone uses an open architecture that allows for different payloads and communication systems and can be used for both air strikes and as a target drone. It can be launched from the ground or from a truck and at a cost of around $35,000 it is much cheaper than the MQ-9 Reaper, which costs between $20 and $40 million but is reusable and much more sophisticated. The government holds the intellectual property of the Lucas design, meaning several manufacturers could build it, although SpektreWorks currently holds the contracts. During its development at the Pentagon, Lucas was paired with Viasat’s Music and SpaceX’s Starlink or Starshield communications systems, according to two sources familiar with the program, while a startup called Noda provides the software to control the drones.

The lesson of Ukraine

The basic problem remains: how to shoot down low-cost drones, without affecting missiles that have particularly high costs? Beyond the proposal put forward by Kiev to exchange Ukrainian-produced interceptor drones and US-made air defense missiles, in these years of war against Moscow Ukraine has developed a model that the countries of the region allied with the United States are studying. It all stems from the fact that Kiev has put in place a multi-layered “protect” with which it has managed to block the swarms of drones, the Iranian-made Shaleds, which have been hurled against it from Moscow at reasonable costs. And it did so thanks to fighter planes, helicopters, electronic systems and weapons of jamming and falsification of signals, anti-aircraft guns and machine guns and other low-cost capabilities. To make ends meet and optimize the reduced arsenals of interceptors, the Gulf countries will no longer use missiles to counter drones, they will do so against Iranian ballistic missiles. In short, the tactical approach will change: interceptors will be used “with better judgment” and only against more valuable targets, ballistic missiles.

To counter Shaled drones, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain will look to the tactic promoted by Kiev, which consists of utilizing low-cost (round $2,500) FPV (First Person View) drones able to quickly accelerating and bodily colliding with enemy drones (kamikaze) in flight. Often flown by operators with visors, or geared up with AI programs below improvement for automated monitoring, these drones act as small interceptor fighters. Ukrainian technicians will likely be known as upon to supply help and anti-drone applied sciences. Why bear in mind the instance of Ukraine? Because Kiev is acknowledged as a world chief in drone warfare because of the capturing down of 80-90% of Russian ones.