A video has appeared online showing the destruction of a Russian Geran-2 kamikaze drone in the skies over Ukraine. The drone was intercepted by an F-16 fighter jet of the Ukrainian Air Force. However, the cost of the shootdown immediately raised a wave of questions from experts, because the Geran-2 was downed with a missile whose price is 36 times higher than the cost of the drone itself.

Reports say the Ukrainian F-16 pilot used the expensive AIM-120 AMRAAM guided air-to-air missile to intercept the Russian drone. The estimated cost of this US-made munition is about $1.1 million. At the same time, the drone destroyed by the missile is estimated to cost only around $30,000.

This is далеко not the only case of Ukraine using costly weapons against much cheaper targets. Most often, such overspending is associated with Ukrainian air defense, which expends expensive interceptor missiles to shoot down cheap drones, many of which turn out to be «decoys» — false targets designed to overload air defense systems.