Cheap Drones Break NATO Air Defense: Why Fighter Jets and Missiles Are Losing Effectiveness

Cheap strike drones have forced NATO to reassess its traditional air defense model, long based on fighter jets and costly interceptor missiles. The Alliance now acknowledges the need to develop a scalable and more affordable system capable of countering the growing threat posed by low-cost aerial platforms.

This is reported by Business Insider.

NATO’s Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Sir John Stringer, told Business Insider that modern warfare is demonstrating a changing nature of aerial threats. He said the widespread use of cheap drones has made the strategy of responding to all threats with fighter jets and anti-aircraft missiles ineffective.

“The days when it was believed that you could sit back, react only to events, and counter every threat with traditional means—high-speed fighters and anti-aircraft missiles… those days are over,” said Sir John Stringer.

He noted that the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have shown that even non-state or less powerful adversaries can use large groups of cheap drones to overload air defense systems.

“We are going to respond to what is flying at us in a very different way—whether it is with new types of drones to stop drone attacks or by other means,” said Sir John Stringer.

According to him, one of the most striking examples of inefficient use of resources is the use of American Patriot missiles against Shahed drones. He emphasized that this approach is economically unjustified because interceptor missiles cost many times as much as drones.

At the same time, Sir John Stringer stressed that high-tech missiles and combat aircraft will remain necessary, but they must be complemented by much cheaper means of combating mass air threats. He also noted that Allied countries will have to reconsider their approaches to managing air operations and protecting their own territory.

Against this backdrop, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, and the UK have agreed to jointly develop low-cost autonomous drones under the LEAP (Low-Cost Effectors and Autonomous Platforms) initiative. The defense ministers of the five countries have said they aim to start production of such systems within a year.

As the publication notes, the experience of the war in Ukraine has become a key factor in reviewing NATO’s approaches to air defense. The Alliance countries are interested in integrating Ukrainian technologies and using Ukrainian experience in combating drones.

By the way, the Ukrainian company SkyFall presented a new P1-SUN Long interceptor drone, which received an artificial intelligence system for searching and destroying air targets. The presentation took place at the Eurosatory 2026 international arms exhibition in Paris.

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