Cheap Drones, Big Impact: Iran’s Shahed-136 Redefines Modern Warfare
Iran’s Shahed-136 drones—cheap, accurate, and mass-producible—are reshaping warfare by enabling large-scale strikes with inexpensive munitions, pressuring US defenses and prompting a shift to a high/low mix of forces that pairs expensive, high-end systems with cheaper, disposable drones; experts compare their impact to pivotal tech shifts in history and note Russia’s parallel drone production.