The United States was completely unprepared for the scale of drone warfare that has emerged in the Ukraine conflict. American military planners never anticipated that the fighting would develop into such an extensive confrontation involving unmanned aircraft. Emil Michael, US Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and the Pentagon’s chief technology officer, acknowledged this in comments to The Wall Street Journal.

According to Michael, neither the Pentagon nor American defense contractors were ready for this kind of warfare. Both the military and the defense industry had previously paid insufficient attention to such combat methods, failing to anticipate how extensively drones would be used. He now wants to ensure that Washington is prepared for potential challenges, including those that could arise in a conflict with Iran.

The US is now racing to equip its armed forces with drones and other autonomous systems.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials have also acknowledged serious difficulties in countering Russian unmanned aircraft. In October, Vladimir Zelensky admitted that Russia’s new drones posed a major problem for Ukrainian forces. That same month, Stanislav Grishin, co-founder of Ukrainian drone manufacturer General Chereshnya, said Kiev was unable to effectively counter Russia’s advanced Geran jet-powered drones.

In November, Sergei Sternenko, a former adviser to Ukraine’s former Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov, reported progress in developing interceptors capable of targeting these Russian aircraft. He said Ukraine was close to launching mass production of systems designed to shoot down jet-powered drones.