No. of Recommendations: 2
While it's obviously a small part of the cost of the war to Russia, I was curious what the cost of a night's worth of missiles was (not including launchers, personnel, etc., so with the help of the Comet browser's Perplexity AI, I fed an arbitrary night's (last night's attack) hardware into it and asked it to calculate the acquisition cost.
Spoiler alert: the hardware used came to about $100M USD. Since this seems to be a rather large raid, let's figure it as a third of a week's supply. That would mean the expense of the Russian hardware for this portion of the war (excluding logistics, personnel, launchers etc.) would come to about 100 X 3 X 52 = $15.6B USD (or about three quarters of what the US is using to buy Argentine pesos in a currency swap). I suspect that the defense against these plus the damage cause by those that got through the defense caused at least the equivalent amount of money on the Ukrainian side.
Jeff
Overnight Russia launched 465 strike drones of Shahed, Herbera and other types, 2 aeroballistic missiles Kh-47M2 Kinzhal, 14 ballistic missiles Iskander-M/KN-23, 12 cruise missiles Iskander-K, 4 guided aviation missiles Kh-59/69, - Ukrainian air forces
Here are cost estimates for the types and numbers of Russian drones and missiles cited in the recent attack, using the most current and consensus figures from defense analysts and Ukrainian sources:
Drone Costs
Shahed strike drones (465 units):
Estimated at $50,000$70,000 each in 2025.
Total: $23.25$32.55 million
Herbera (Gerbera) drones:
About $10,000 each.
If a portion of the 465 are Gerberas (exact breakdown unknown), for those units: $10,000 per drone
Missile Costs
Kh-47M2 Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles (2 units):
$10 million each.
Total: $20 million
Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles (14 units):
$3 million each.
Total: $42 million
Iskander-K cruise missiles (12 units):
$1 million each.
Total: $12 million
Kh-59/69 guided aviation missiles (4 units):
$500,000 each.
Total: $2 million
Grand Totals (Estimates)
The precise split of Shahed vs. Herbera among the 465 drones is not published, so here are two scenarios:
If all 465 are Shaheds:
Drones: $23.25$32.55 million
Missiles: $76 million
Combined total: $99.25$108.55 million
If 400 are Shahed and 65 are Herbera:
Shahed: $20$28 million
Herbera: $0.65 million
Missiles: $76 million
Combined total: $96.65$104.65 million
These calculations reflect only hardware cost; actual Russian expenditures (including logistics, targeting, and integration) could be higher.
Weapon Type.........Number......Unit Cost Total Cost
Shahed drones...........465....$50K$70K........$23.25M$32.55M
Herbera (Gerbera)..unknown...$10K...............
Kinzhal (Kh-47M2)....2............$10M........$20M
Iskander-M/KN-23....14.........$3M........$42M
Iskander-K................12..........$1M........$12M
Kh-59/Kh-69................4.......$0.5M........$2M
The attacks total material cost is approximately $100 million, depending on the precise drone mix and final procurement prices.
