Iran’s growing use of swarming, low-cost one-way drones presents a credible threat to high-value US naval vessels, Cameron Chell, CEO of Canadian drone company Draganfly, told Fox News Digital on Monday.
Chell said Iran’s advantage is volume and cost rather than sophistication, pairing inexpensive warheads with cheap delivery platforms launched in large numbers. “If hundreds are launched in a short period of time, some are almost certain to get through,” he told Fox News Digital, describing how near-simultaneous arrivals can stress radar, interceptors, and close-in weapon systems.
The assessment was framed around potential risks to large, slow-moving surface vessels that are easily tracked and, in saturation scenarios, may face difficult cost-exchange rates when expending expensive interceptors against cheap attackers. Chell said such swarms give Iran “a very credible way to threaten surface vessels,” particularly if launched in coordinated waves designed to exhaust magazines and create gaps in coverage. Shortly after the report, a US official told Fox News that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group had entered US Central Command waters in the Indian Ocean.
In recent days, US force movements and consultations between CENTCOM and Israel’s military leadership have intensified amid rising regional tensions. The backdrop includes years of drone and missile activity across the Red Sea and Persian Gulf arenas and evolving cooperation on counter-drone defenses among US, Israeli, and partner forces. Chell concluded that the key operational dilemma is the imbalance between cost and capacity. “Modern defense systems were not originally designed to counter that kind of saturation attack,” he told Fox News Digital. (Read More)
