One of the most pressing problems in modern warfare is economic asymmetry: how to bring down a cheap drone that costs only a few thousand dollars without depleting stockpiles of air defense missiles that cost 10 times as much or more. A recent exercise carried out by US Marines in the Philippines, off the coast of the South China Sea, offers a glimpse of the solution the American defense establishment is trying to advance.
During the drill, forces practiced intercepting fixed-wing drones using a mobile air defense system known as MADIS. The system is based on two light tactical vehicles, the successors to the familiar Humvee: one is fitted with an advanced radar for detecting aerial targets, while the other carries Stinger missiles alongside electronic warfare and signal-jamming systems.
Instead of relying solely on missiles, both vehicles are armed with cannons and machine guns. The goal is to give commanders in the field a varied toolbox of options, including missiles, electronic warfare and cannon fire, so they can choose the most economically viable response according to the threat.
Shells instead of half-million-dollar missiles
Until now, US operations in the Middle East against Iranian threats have relied heavily on expensive, hard-to-produce air-to-air missiles such as the AIM-120, each of which carries a price tag of $1 million. The Stinger missiles used by the MADIS system are also far from cheap, costing about $430,000 per missile, while Coyote interceptors used by forces in the region cost around $100,000 each.
By contrast, an Iranian Shahed explosive drone costs Tehran's industries only about $30,000, while smaller drones can be bought for just a few thousand dollars. To close that gap, the Americans are counting on a dedicated 30 mm shell equipped with a proximity fuse. The fuse detects the target and detonates the round as it approaches, meaning a precise direct hit is not required.
According to ammunition experts' estimates, even if five such shells are needed to bring down a single drone, the total cost would be about $11,250. These shells are being marked as a reliable and effective backup if electronic jamming fails to neutralize the threat.
The mass production challenge
Despite the clear economic advantage, the shift to cannon ammunition poses a complex logistical challenge for the US defense industry: mass production. To provide an effective response in the field, the military will need hundreds of thousands of shells, but there are very few production lines capable of building precise electromechanical proximity fuses at that scale.
Major defense companies such as Northrop Grumman, which recently won a contract worth more than $200 million from the US Army, and L3Harris have already begun investing resources in expanding production lines to keep pace with the surge in global demand for this type of ammunition.
In the field, the Marines are practicing the combined use of these systems according to the scale of the threat. In the latest exercise, the 30 mm cannon and proximity-fuse shells were used against the larger targets, while the secondary machine gun, characterized by its rapid rate of fire, was used against smaller drones. The use of the expensive Stinger missiles was saved for the end of the drill as a final response tier, bringing down the target with a single shot.
