Did L3Harris and BAE Systems Just Find the Solution to Low-Cost Drone Threats?
The U.S. Navy has a chance to shoot down drones with missiles that cost less than the drones themselves. But will the Navy make the obvious choice?
The average cost of an Iranian-built Shahed-136 kamikaze drone is $50,000. A Standard Missile-2 surface-to-air missile, used by U.S. Navy destroyers for missile and anti-drone defense, meanwhile, costs $2.1 million -- 42 times as much.
It doesn't take an advanced degree in mathematics to realize the economics of war here favors the party launching drones over the one buying missiles to shoot them down. And yet, the Navy doesn't have much choice but to use $2 million missiles against $50,000 drones when they appear. The alternative is letting the drones reach their target, and having to repair or replace a $2.5 billion destroyer, and explaining to the families of more than 300 sailors that they were just trying to save money!
Still, in an ideal world, the U.S. military would prefer to shoot down cheap drones with even cheaper rockets -- and two of our biggest defense contractors, L3Harris (NYSE: LHX) and BAE Systems (OTC: BAES.Y), may have just figured out how to do that... with a little help from Ukraine.
