Israel and the US along with the UK, France and Jordan almost completely disrupted last weekend’s massive airborne attack by Iran. The volley of 300 drones and missiles fired at Israel—retaliation for a deadly April 1 strike on the Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria—was telegraphed by Tehran in the days beforehand, leaving Israel and its allies time to prepare. Still, the attack’s unprecedented scale illustrated how inexpensive drone technology has changed the nature of modern warfare.
The strategic benefit of small drones has already been made plain during two years of war in Ukraine, a bloody conflict in which Chinese and Iranian drones have been central players. In How Drones Are Revolutionizing the Economics of War, Bloomberg Originals shows how the relatively inexpensive but accurate technology has changed the dynamics of battle, allowing smaller powers to pack a bigger punch. Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer at King’s College London, points to this leveling effect when he calls drones the “the AK-47 of 21st century warfare.”