- After four years of war, Ukraine is emerging as a leading source of expertise in a new type of war.
- Zelenskyy said on Monday that Kyiv has received 11 foreign requests for help in fighting Shaheds.
- The US and its allies are scrambling for new ways to counter the drones as the Iran war rages.
Four years after Ukraine was thrust into a war many feared would be lost in days, Kyiv has found itself fielding nearly a dozen inquiries from militaries scrambling to learn how it fights.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that his government had received 11 requests for help — from the US and countries in the Middle East and Europe — on how to deal with Iran's Shaheds.
"There is clear interest in Ukraine's experience in protecting lives, relevant interceptors, electronic warfare systems, and training," Zelenskyy said.
It's unclear if this means 11 countries have lodged requests or if some nations may have filed multiple requests, such as through individual military or law enforcement branches.
Zelenskyy said his government would work to determine how it could deliver matériel, expertise, or training on fighting Shaheds without compromising Ukraine's ability to defend its own skies.
"Ukraine is ready to respond positively to requests from those who help us protect the lives of Ukrainians and the independence of Ukraine," he added.
The Shahed threat
The Pentagon said last week that Iran has launched over 2,000 of the cheap attack drones at its neighbors and US forces in the region, after the US and Israel began a massive airstrike campaign over Iran on February 28.
Ukraine, meanwhile, says it deals with hundreds of similar drones at a time, sometimes on a daily basis. Russia has, for years, manufactured multiple versions of the Shahed to bombard Ukrainian cities, often pairing the loitering munitions with decoy delta-wing drones.
In late February, Zelenskyy said that Russia had launched 57,000 Shaheds at Ukraine since February 2022.
A key initial dilemma for Ukraine, and one that the US and its allies now face with Iran, is that the Shahed costs much less than a typical interceptor missile. At an estimated price of $20,000 to $50,000, the attack drone is a poor target for even lower-cost traditional anti-air missiles such as the AIM-132, which can cost $250,000 apiece.
Ukraine has tried to solve the problem, with relative success, by surging electronic warfare measures, deploying mobile ground crews with machine guns, and producing interceptor drones — cheap, small drones designed to chase and ram into Shaheds with an explosive payload.
These interceptors can cost between $2,000 and $6,000 each, and are made to fly faster than a typical Shahed-136's reported top speed of 115 mph. But most also require human pilots, who often need months of practice and training to intercept a Shahed effectively.
Juggling two wars at once
In his statement on Monday, Zelenskyy didn't specify the exact systems or expertise Ukraine is willing to provide in the Middle East.
However, the Ukrainian president told The New York Times that Kyiv was sending an unspecified number of interceptor drones and a team of experts to assist US bases in Jordan.
"We reacted immediately," he told the outlet, in its Monday report.
The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia also host American military bases and have reported hundreds of Iranian drone and missile attacks since the US-Israeli campaign began. Similar attacks have been recorded at a smaller scale in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Cyprus, and Azerbaijan.
Ukraine has a high interest in sharing its expertise and tech with the world; it wants to grow its defense export market, and has already been selling some systems and building manufacturing hubs in Europe, where fears of war with Russia run deeper.
It's not yet clear how many interceptor drones Ukraine can spare for the Middle East. Kyiv said last year that it had achieved daily production of 1,000 interceptor drones.
Ukrainian drone manufacturer Skyfall, which makes the P1-Sun 3D-printed interceptor, told Reuters on Saturday that it could produce 50,000 P1-Suns a month and possibly export up to 10,000 drones without sapping local supplies.
US forces also have homegrown anti-Shahed interceptors. On Saturday, American defense officials told Business Insider that the US Army was deploying the Merops interceptor system, which launches a reusable $15,000 drone, to the Middle East.
They did not say how many systems would be deployed, but said US troops in the region would be trained on how to use the Merops.
Meanwhile, Kyiv has repeatedly hinted at receiving Patriot missile supplies in exchange for its help with fighting Shaheds. Zelenskyy has said his country faces a dire shortage of these interceptors, which it needs to counter Russian missile strikes.
The US and its allies, however, have also been using Patriots extensively in the Middle East since the war began, on top of earlier concerns that munitions for the air defense system were already running low.
