For decades, advanced militaries used expensive missiles for precise attacks and cheaper artillery for mass bombardment. The war in Ukraine has shown that drones can be both cheap and precise, with Shaheds costing just tens of thousands of dollars apiece and able to fly more than 1,000 miles, by some estimates.
The Iranian-designed drone has proved particularly effective at overwhelming air defenses. Russia routinely launches scores of Shaheds, which explode on impact, at the same time. Missiles are sometimes fired alongside drone salvos, making it more likely they will evade defenses.
The Ukraine war showed the importance of affordable, long-range drones, and that the West isn’t where it needs to be, said Lt. Gen. André Steur, commander of the Royal Netherlands Air and Space Force.
“If you do get into a war, you need deep, deep pockets,” Steur said.
Companies in the U.S., China, France, the U.K. and elsewhere are all working on their own unmanned aerial vehicles that seek to emulate the Shahed. Ukraine has been striking Russia with long-range drones for at least two years, and recently started using a UAV with triangular wings that looks just like a Shahed.
The West, though, is largely behind the curve and faces various challenges including higher costs, analysts say.
Iran began working on the Shahed in the early 2000s, following the development of similar long-range drones in Israel and South Africa. The UAV has since been used by Iran to strike Israel, as well as by Tehran’s proxies across the Middle East.
Russia started deploying the Shahed in late 2022 after signing an agreement with Iran to purchase and produce the drones locally. Since then, it has launched tens of thousands of its own version of the attack drones—as well as decoys—at targets in Ukraine.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote a memo in July that called for the U.S. to bolster its drone manufacturing base, and for combat units to be armed with a variety of American-made, low-cost UAVs.
At a Pentagon event this summer, 18 American-made drone prototypes were on display. One of those was the Lucas, made by Phoenix-based SpektreWorks, which closely resembles the Shahed.
The company, which has received government funding, describes the drone as “cost-effective” with few logistical requirements.
The Arrowhead, a long-range attack drone made by Griffon Aerospace, also has the same triangular wing shape as the Shahed. The Madison, Ala.-based company says the UAV has been built for mass production and can be launched in various different ways.
Shaheed drones and their imitators are becoming so ubiquitous that companies, including Griffon and Sweden’s Saab, are now also selling UAVs for target practice that are designed to look and act like the Iranian munition.
But expensive labor and materials are a problem for all Western drone makers.
U.S. defense company Anduril Industries sold 291 of its Altius long-range drones to Taiwan last year in a deal that valued the UAVs at more than $1 million each, including training and support infrastructure.
By contrast, Russia can produce its version of the much simpler Shaheds for between roughly $35,000 and $60,000 apiece, analysts say.
The Shahed’s triangular wing design aids cheap mass production because it doesn’t typically need structural components, such as supporting ribs, said Steve Wright, who advises companies and the U.K. government on drone design. A fiberglass or carbon fiber body, and the use of a propeller engine rather than jet propulsion, also keeps costs down.
Some Western manufacturers say their drones’ superior performance is worth the extra spending.
Britain’s MGI Engineering said its long-range drone, the SkyShark, can fly at 280 miles an hour, compared with around 115 mph for a Shahed-136. That will make it harder to hit, said Mike Gascoyne, the company’s founder.
“If twice as many SkySharks hit their target, then it is much cheaper than a Shahed,” said Gascoyne, who previously worked on Formula One race cars. MGI is pitching the SkyShark at between $50,000 and $65,000.
European missile giant MBDA says its long-range attack drone is a cross between a cruise missile and a UAV. The company has teamed up with a French automaker to produce the new weapon, which is designed to be fired from the ground in salvos.
“Mass produced at a fraction of the cost of a cruise missile, it will tire out the enemy’s defense,” said Hugo Coqueret, a business development manager at MBDA. The company hasn’t disclosed the price of the new weapon.
MBDA said the drone, which features a jet engine and has a range of about 300 miles, was influenced by the war in Ukraine.
To be sure, Western militaries have alternatives to drones. The U.S. has several initiatives exploring low-cost, one-way attack munitions, including the Air Force’s Family of Affordable Mass Missiles program.
American forces could also seek to amplify what munitions they already have with electronic and physical decoys, or by deploying aircraft to hit targets.
But for some military experts, Russia’s use of Shaheds in Ukraine shows that the West needs more alternatives to missiles that cost more than $1 million each and take over a year to make.
Russia’s use of the mass-produced drones to exhaust defenses has been “game changing,” said James Patton Rogers, a drone expert at the Cornell Brooks Tech Policy Institute at Cornell University.
“Cheap, long-range precision saturation strikes are one of the greatest threats to international security,” Rogers said.
Write to Alistair MacDonald at Alistair.Macdonald@wsj.com
