Bang for your buck: $200m worth of Russian drones taken out by $15m Merops UAVs
US and Polish soldiers have been demonstrating the Merops drone interceptor – an American-made counter-UAV system that's been proving its worth in Ukraine.
US officials said each drone costs roughly $14,500, about 10% of the cost of the Shahed drones Russia uses to attack Ukraine.
The Merops system has already taken down more than 1,000 Russian drones in Ukraine, inflicting more than $200m in Russian losses compared with the $15m cost of the interceptors – a cost-to-kill ratio of over 13:1.
Putting machines in harm's way, not people
In addition to Ukraine, the low-cost Merops system is in use with Poland and Romania to defend their airspace.
British Army Brigadier Chris Gent, a deputy chief of staff at Nato Allied Land Command (Landcom), said the emphasis on the modern battlefield was on numbers.
"What we are focused on now is mass, defeating mass, autonomy, putting machines in harm's way rather than our soldiers and our people in harm's way," he said.
"So I think we'll just continue to develop. And you will just see a steady upward trajectory in terms of how we take this method of warfare forward in the future."
Cheap to field and quick to deploy
The Merops drone can be launched from the back of a pickup truck, and an seek out targets autonomously using radio frequency, radar guidance or thermal signatures.
One of its key technical attributes is its ability to receive information from many different radar systems.
For the demonstration in Nowa Dęba in southeast Poland, the US Army linked it with the Italian-produced RPS-42 radar, proving its interoperability.
Merops put on Eastern Sentry duty
US Army Europe and Africa (USAEURAF) loaned dozens of Merops interceptors and ground control stations to Poland and Romania as part of Operation Eastern Sentry.
The Nato initiative was launched in response to recent Russian drone incursions into Polish airspace, aimed at enhancing the alliance's ability to defend its eastern flank.
More than 20 drones violated Poland's airspace on 9 September, prompting the response from Landcom and USAEURAF.
They are working to identify combat-proven systems, accelerate the procurement process and get the right capability to the right place at the right time.
How it works
According to Business Insider, the drone part of the Merops short-range air defence system is called the Surveyor.
When a Surveyor attacks a target, it can either ram into the enemy drone or detonate a small warhead.
Should the Surveyor miss its target – or presumably fail to find a target – it can deploy a parachute, allowing it to be recovered.
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