proven

The Army’s top official pointed to low-cost interceptor drones first sent to Ukraine as one defense against Iranian barrages of Shahed-136 one-way attack munitions. During Congressional testimony on Thursday, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll lauded the Merops interceptor and the process to get it quickly into the hands of troops in the Middle East.

The Merops is a small, relatively inexpensive drone built specifically to zip through the skies and intercept long-range one-way attack drones. As we have previously reported, Ukraine has been using several locally produced drones, as well as Merops, to counter Russian Shaheds successfully for some time now, proving-out the concept.

“When the conflict kicked off, within about eight days, we were able to purchase…13,000 Merops, which are incredible,” Driscoll exclaimed. “They’re about $15,000 a piece right now. We think as they scale, they’ll get less than [$10,000] and we’re able to take Shaheds down that cost $30,000 to $50,000, which is amazing because that puts us on the right end of the cost curve, and we will make that trade all day long.”

The U.S. has its own interceptors that have been in service for years, such as Raytheon’s Coyote, but they cost roughly 10 times more.

A new system to identify and take down Russian drones is deployed to NATO’s eastern flank

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Driscoll said that larger orders could drive that to $3,000 to $5,000 per interceptor. Given the success in Ukraine, it is likely that the Pentagon and other customers would see far less risk when it comes to ordering large numbers.

As we noted in a story last month, the Pentagon sent thousands of these drone interceptors to the Middle East. Iranian strikes on U.S. military facilities killed U.S. troops and caused damage to bases and equipment. Driscoll did not offer more specifics about how often they were used, how many Shaheds they downed or exactly where they were deployed.

Merops was “developed as part of the US-backed Project Eagle initiative, which includes contributions from Swift Beat, a company associated with former Google CEO Eric Schmidt,” according to the Ukraine Defense Tech Community (DTC), a marketplace for modern weaponry. “The system is built around Surveyor drones, which act as airborne interceptors capable of destroying enemy UAVs mid-flight.”

Each Merops unit “includes a command station, launch platforms, and a fleet of Surveyor drones,” DTC explained. “These interceptors can operate autonomously or be remotely piloted and are equipped with onboard sensors for target tracking.”

While full technical specifications remain undisclosed, they can reportedly reach speeds of over 280 km/h (175 mph). “The platform is considered fast enough to intercept jet-powered drones such as the Russian Geran-3, which can exceed 300 km/h,” DTC pointed out.

The interceptor can carry an explosive warhead and destroys targets either through a direct collision or a proximity detonation.

Driscoll said the ability to field Merops so quickly is because the Army streamlined its acquisition process.

“Fundamentally, one of the core problems was our own bureaucracy, our own infrastructure, our own decision-making organizations had decayed from any sort of speed and rationality,” he testified. “The reason we’ve been able to move fast since the conflict in Iran started is because of work 10, 12, 14 months ago to reorganize our acquisitions department.”

“And practically,” he added, “what that did is it took us from a 16-step decision-making process – where each of the bodies along those 16 steps could veto it and start it back over, and it could take two to seven years to purchase something.”

“We put everybody into a group who could make decisions on the fly,” the secretary noted. “And so a lot of the things the Army has worked on in the previous year are paying dividends as we try to make decisions quickly.”

You can watch Driscoll’s testimony on Merops at the 36-minute mark of the video below.

Budget Hearing – The United States Army

In Ukraine, Merops has proven to be a far cheaper alternative to munitions like Patriot interceptors and even far less advanced missiles for downing Shahed drones which have caused widespread destruction across that country. While these drones have neither the payload nor range of the far more expensive Patriot munitions, they can be deployed in great numbers giving them the ability to cover larger geographical areas. That helps keep the magazine depth of more sophisticated effectors from being quickly depleted and turns the disastrous ‘exchange ratio’ between cost of target versus effector on its head. In many cases, these systems would still need to be part of a layered defense, especially when used as point defense at high value installations and infrastructure.

Now that these weapons have helped save American lives and equipment, Merops success means we will likely be seeing more low-cost drone interceptors like it in the future.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

You used to root for Bronny James to come into games ironically. Or because you just wanted to see history.

But now I bet you want to see Bronny come into the game to hoop.

That’s a pretty cool plot twist.

Especially because LeBron James’ son has had to develop his game with the weight of a kingdom on his shoulders, the only expectation being that he would fail to amount to anything resembling an NBA player.

But over the past couple seasons, Bronny has developed into an NBA reserve who is worth rostering, whether or not his dad is part of the program.

Shocker, right?

Lakers guard Bronny James blocks a shot by Spurs forward Kelly Olynyk at Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 10.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

For the second consecutive game Friday, Lakers coach JJ Redick called the second-year guard’s number for important minutes.

Not to complete garbage time chores. Not as a gimmick to please the King. But because he needed a ball-handler he could trust after the regular rotation got wonky in the second quarter of the Lakers’ 116-99 victory over the Brooklyn Nets at Crypto.com Arena.

For the second consecutive game, Bronny helped buoy the Lakers. In four minutes, he had a deflection and drained a three-pointer that not only keyed a much-needed 9-0 Lakers run but also was the first father-to-son assisted basket in NBA history, coming on a pass from LeBron.

Trailblazers, like at Sierra Canyon High. That’s where Bronny and the Nets’ Ziaire Williams were teammates before Bronny and his dad, “Big Bron,” were Williams’ opponents Friday.

His former teammate sees in Bronny what his current teammates do: A hard worker who needs only to nurture his confidence to be able to contribute in the NBA.

“He’ll be great,” Williams said. “Especially starting off on the defensive end. He can guard one through four, pick up full [court,] have good ball pressure. On the offensive end, he’s a gamer. He can make shots, he can drive the ball. He can get his teammates open. The biggest thing with him is just keeping that confidence.

“When he’s confident and he’s in flow state, in rhythm, he’s a great, great player. … He’s just gotta keep working.”

Bronny’s been working in the G League the last two seasons, bouncing between the big leagues and the developmental circuit, where last season his averages were solid — including 21.9 points, per game — but nowhere near as efficient as they’ve been this season. In 13 games, he’s averaging 14.8 points on 54.7% shooting, including 41.7% from three-point range.

Lakers forward LeBron James greets his son, guard Bronny James, on the court during a game against the Clippers at Crypto.com Arena on Nov. 25.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“It’s just getting back to where it was before the incident,” LeBron said Friday, referencing Bronny’s cardiac arrest caused by a congenital heart defect on July 24, 2023.

“He’s always been able to shoot the ball. He shot the ball at a high level pretty much throughout his years of playing ball. So I just think there’s the confidence in the rhythm and just getting the strength back and his wind and everything. Everything is just coming back.”

That’s carried over to the big club; Bronny is shooting 41.9% from three-point range in those instances when Redick has called on him — as he also did in a 137-130 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday.

In that victory, Bronny had four points, two steals and a block in 13 minutes. Redick credited the 21-year-old with settling the team with a pull-up jumper with 3:55 to go in the game, which was the second this season LeBron and Bronny played together.

The first time it happened, in the season opener in 2024, the prevailing thought was that it wouldn’t happen again for a long time — and if it did, something had probably gone very wrong for the Lakers that game.

But that’s not the case. No, because Bronny has made a convincing case as an NBA player.

“I’ve been wanting to play basketball my whole life,” Bronny said. “It’s a dream come true. I’m so privileged to be able to play basketball for a job and I love every single second of it. My teammates embrace it. I’m best friends with all my teammates and my coaches. I’m just happy to be here.”

He’s become an effective plug-and-play piece — and not on a tanking Nets team that regularly runs out G League-caliber players, but on a playoff-bound Lakers team that has won 14 of its last 16 games.

The No. 55 draft pick in 2024, Bronny has surpassed Dalton Knecht, the 17th pick in that same draft, in the Lakers’ pecking order.

He’s become a player who can be counted on, and he’s especially valuable to a team that happens to badly need youth and athleticism, as the Lakers do.

You want to talk twists? How about whatever happens with LeBron — when, or if, he retires — the Lakers should seriously consider keeping Bronny in the fold. Seriously.