Ukraine’s drone defense tech reshapes combat as warfare evolves

[0:00] Earlier this month, President Trump said he didn't want Ukraine's help with drone defense, [0:04] saying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was the last person he'd turn to. [0:09] But as with the war with Iran continuing, countries in the Gulf have been lining up [0:14] for Ukraine's guidance on how to counter drones. Just today, Zelensky was in Saudi Arabia to strike [0:20] a deal with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Special Correspondent Simon Ostrovsky filed [0:25] this report from Ukraine. At a secret location in Ukraine, a local drone manufacturer demos its [0:34] latest weapon, Sting drone, capable of intercepting the Iranian-designed Shahid suicide drone [0:43] Russia routinely launches into Ukraine. The Sting is fast, accurate, and crucially cheap. [0:52] Since its first successful strike a year ago, interceptors like this one, made by the defense [0:57] tech firm Wild Hornets, have taken out around 4,000 Shahid-type drones. [1:03] This is the first time a drone has been intercepted by a drone. [1:03] This Sting drone is a perfect example of the asymmetric warfare that Ukrainians excel at. [1:10] It costs between $1,300 and $2,200, and it goes up against Iranian and Russian Shahid drones [1:18] that cost around $50,000 to make. [1:24] It's a technology that, until now, has largely been ignored by America's defense tech industry, [1:29] that's traditionally focused on making exquisite and expensive weaponry that can [1:35] take away from Ukraine's defense tech industry. [1:35] The U.S. has had decades to develop. [1:36] DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States, Don't tell us what we're going to feel. [1:38] Instead, the White House has stepped back from Ukraine, appropriating no new funds for [1:43] the war since Trump took office. [1:46] This hurts Ukraine's war effort against Russia, of course, but there are increasing concerns [1:50] in Washington that it's also making the U.S. less able to recognize and prepare for a host [1:56] of emerging threats from American adversaries like Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China, [2:02] who are all working together and absorbing lessons. [2:05] DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States, Now, the Iran war has exposed America's over-reliance [2:13] on multimillion-dollar munitions to shoot down cheap Iranian Shahids, according to [2:19] Wild Hornet spokesman Alex Roslin, who argues the math just doesn't make sense. [2:25] They're using $4 million Patriot missiles. [2:28] Patriots are scarce, but the United States has reportedly used 300 Patriots to knock [2:35] down Shahid drones fired by Iran. [2:37] That's $1.2 billion. [2:38] That's $1.2 billion of Patriots against 300 Shahids, and we could have taken down those [2:45] drones with our interceptor drones for around $600,000. [2:50] That's something that the world could learn from Ukraine. [2:53] Not everyone is ignoring developments in Ukraine. [2:59] A representative of General Cherry, another Ukrainian drone company that makes a staggering [3:04] 100,000 drones per month, which, incidentally, is the total amount of drones made in America [3:11] annually. [3:12] He said interest in their technology has surged since the start of the Iran war. [3:17] Another flagship product, General Cherry Air. [3:19] Did the interest in joint production, joint manufacturing, did it increase after the war [3:25] in Iran started? [3:26] Yes, they have a lot of interest in us. [3:30] We have more than 10 different negotiation processes right now. [3:34] The reason it's so important for these drones to be battle-tested is because, [3:43] you know, Ukrainian engineers from companies like General Cherry that has designed this [3:49] new prototype are constantly improving the design. [3:53] And this one here takes the original drone interceptor to the next level. [3:58] The reason that these workstations are empty right now is because the engineers who usually [4:03] work here are out in the field testing these. [4:06] Our soldiers make it on the positions. [4:08] General Cherry's updated model will fly at close to 250 miles per hour. [4:13] Fast enough to take out a jet-powered Shahed. [4:17] In just a few years, the company's managed to set up a full production line, from 3D printing [4:24] parts to testing its ready drones. [4:28] A small handful of American defense companies are actually developing their technology out [4:34] of Ukraine. [4:35] We essentially use this to kind of capture data. [4:37] Vermeer, founded by New Yorker Brian Stream, is one. [4:41] It's just replacing the GPS antenna. [4:44] The firm produces navigation systems. [4:46] It allows drones carrying several hundred pounds of munitions to fly deep into enemy [4:52] territory undetected, using an AI-driven navigation system that's immune to spoofing and jamming. [5:00] Vermeer's clients include the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the U.S. Air Force. [5:05] The Russians are very good at jamming and spoofing GPS. [5:09] So my company, we build a solution for that. [5:11] We call it VPS, visual positioning system. [5:14] Information is power. [5:15] The information I'm sharing back to it. [5:17] To Americans is incredibly powerful, very valuable to any nation that wants to compete [5:23] in this new found kind of drone unmanned arms race we appear to be involved in. [5:31] The more we kind of pull back, we will lose out tremendously. [5:36] America's relationship with Ukraine has changed drastically since Trump came into office. [5:41] In the years following the invasion, Congress approved massive aid and arms packages amounting [5:48] to $25 billion in total since 2022, making Ukraine the largest recipient of U.S. foreign [5:55] assistance in modern history. [5:58] Since Trump took office, that number has dropped to $0. [6:03] While everyone agrees that America's pivot away from Kyiv hurts Ukraine, some are starting [6:07] to wonder aloud if it hurts America, too. [6:10] I put this question to a panel of security experts at a recent U.S.-Ukraine security summit [6:18] in Washington. [6:19] The less you invest, the less presence you have of U.S. people on the ground learning [6:24] what's going on. [6:25] And I would say that we have cut off our nose to spite our face. [6:32] We're going to cost our taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars in failed expertise [6:38] because we're not listening. [6:39] At the same time, America's main adversaries, China, Iran and North Korea, have all continued [6:45] to support their ally Russia in the war. [6:49] As a major supplier of both the Russian and Ukrainian defense sectors. [6:53] China is especially positioned to suck up information from both sides of the front line. [7:00] The Chinese are learning a lot from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. [7:03] Rush Doshi covers China at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. [7:07] In 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, he was on the China team at the National Security [7:13] Council. [7:14] He says Beijing's own military capabilities are advancing thanks to its backing of Moscow. [7:19] They seem that the Russians initially did not perform well. [7:22] They want to fix that. [7:23] Second. [7:24] They're learning more about warfare. [7:25] What exactly matters in the conflict in the 21st century, where you've seen the proliferation [7:28] of drones and other technology that wasn't as salient in past conflicts. [7:33] They're learning more about that. [7:34] Third, they've learned a lot about the need to sustain your own industrial base and economy. [7:38] Right now, you could argue the U.S. has learned some of that lesson, but we're slower to adopt [7:43] that lesson and diffuse it through our military than China. [7:47] Recent reporting suggests the Trump administration is learning its lesson the hard way. [7:53] After coming under sustained attack from Iranian shah heads. [7:55] The American military is now working with Ukrainian advisers in the Middle East after [8:01] having initially refused a Ukrainian proposal to partner on interceptor drones last year. [8:06] For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Simon Ostrovsky in Ukraine.