Subject: Re: Shahed drones
Missile defense for $5 billion a day:
https://messaging-custom-newsl...®i_id=93871742&segment_id=216131&sendId=216131&uri=nyt://newsletter/38739a50-0578-5d9f-9c6d-5cf16cfb42ed&user_id=51b0c9c24bd2dd2f56f41e7a59b7089a

The battlefield costs add up quickly. Kavanagh estimates that the U.S. “easily” spent more than $10 billion on air-defense systems in the current war’s first 48 hours. That is largely attributed to the high-end weapons systems, such as the THAAD ($12.7 million per interceptor missile) and the Patriot ($3.7 million per missile), used to strike down attacking drones and missiles.

Asymmetric economics: The defense systems cost orders of magnitude more than the Iranian weapons they’re shooting down. One common Iranian drone, the Shahed-136, costs roughly $35,000 and can be quickly produced. In the first few days of the conflict, Iran launched as many as 2,000 drones, most of them Shaheds.

Oh boy.