The U.S. is shooting down cheap Iranian drones with missiles that can cost upward of a million dollars. In Texas, Jason Cornelius, the former NASA engineer’s company is building a $10,000 interceptor, and in Estonia, startups like Frankenburg Technologies are pursuing the same goal according to The Wall Street Journal.
Wars in the Middle East and Ukraine have put a spotlight on how limited supplies of sophisticated missiles—including multimillion-dollar Patriot interceptors—are sometimes being used to defend against mass-produced drones that cost just a few thousand dollars.
Kusti Salm, the chief executive of Estonian startup Frankenburg Technologies, which is developing cost-effective interceptors, remembers first reading about Iran sending Shaheds to Ukraine in 2022.
“I thought, if Russia is going to launch 100 Shaheds a month as weapons, every single country in Europe will have trouble,” said Salm, who was working in Estonia’s defense department at the time. “Now, they send up to 400 a day.”
Frankenburg says its missiles can fly at more than 600 miles an hour and have a range of up to a mile. They cost in the low tens of thousands of dollars and take just hours to make.
Read the full article HERE.
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