“We will create an environment with all the elements of an electronic battlefield, where manufacturers of drones and systems for combating them can test their solutions together,” said Driscoll. “We want soldiers to use such training grounds to improve their skills and work directly with developers and manufacturers of new technologies,” he added, according to CBS News, during a Tuesday meeting of representatives of the military and the military industry.
Driscoll said that the US military already has sites in the US for safe testing, but that it is also considering using a training ground abroad for “much more aggressive testing”, including tests of hypersonic weapons. However, he did not want to reveal the locations until the entire project has progressed.
Dwayne Hayes of the US military’s Office of Strategic Threats said that Russia produces 3,000 to 5,000 attack kamikaze drones a month, such as the Shahid drones, as well as about 600,000 smaller FPV drones that are controlled from the perspective of the pilot, who uses special glasses to see in real time exactly what the camera on the drone is capturing.
“Faced with this threat, Ukraine produces about 30,000 fighter drones a month,” he described the situation in the country, which has been defending itself against Russian aggression for the fifth year.
The US needs cheap weapons
“The United States is very successful in producing advanced and expensive munitions, such as the MIM-104 Patriot and THAAD missiles, but it also needs weapons that are cheap enough to be used and consumed in a brutal war of elimination, such as the conflict in Ukraine,” he added.
According to CBS News, the war between Iran and the US highlighted the weaknesses of the US military industry, especially in the speed, flexibility and cost of producing new weapons. US President Donald Trump met with representatives of major defense companies at the beginning of the year and is expected to meet with them again in the coming days to push them to speed up production.
According to the television, this applies in particular to the companies Lockheed Martin, Boeing and L3Harris, which produce, for example, interceptors for the Patriot anti-aircraft system. One such rocket can cost up to five million dollars (106.8 million crowns). The US military is collecting offers for the production of “fighter” missiles, which would be cheaper.
“They shouldn’t replace ‘Ferrari’, that is, our best weapons systems, but we need other things to complement them,” said Driscoll.
Photo: Efrem Lukatsky, AP
The Ukrainian drone from the company General Cherry, used to eliminate Russian drones, can be purchased for $2,100 (44,900 crowns).
