Much has been made of Iran's drone capability. In fact, many analysts in the media are declaring everyone pretty much helpless against the waves of Shahed drones that Iran wields in the region.

But is that true?

X (Twitter): The Iran Watcher on X: "🚨 To protect against Iranian drone attacks, the UAE has completed giant metal frames around fuel storage tanks in Abu Dhabi. The projec

To protect against Iranian drone attacks, the UAE has completed giant metal frames around fuel storage tanks in Abu Dhabi.

The project took roughly four months to complete and shows the extraordinary lengths countries are being forced to take against the terror, conflict and regional instability created by the Islamic Republic.

There's another prevailing myth mostly pushed by the media that drones are killing every tank on the Russian/Ukrainian battlefront as fast as they appear but that's also not correct.

In any conflict, both sides adapt. The Shahed is a great example of a (relatively) low cost stand-off weapon. But it's hardly invincible and has its limitations - it's slow and doesn't carry a particularly large warhead.

There's another prevailing myth that the US has zero counter drone technology and can't make anything. Meet Powerus:

power.us: Powerus | U.S.-Led Autonomous Systems for Defense & Critical Infrastructure

And specifically, meet the Guardian:
power.us: Powerus | U.S.-Led Autonomous Systems for Defense & Critical Infrastructure

Guardians cost about $5 grand each, which is 4-6x less than a Shahed to produce. They can also be produced quickly and in fact...

insideunmannedsystems.com - Powerus opens UAE facility to build guardian interceptors locally

Powerus, a West Palm Beach, Fla., start-up, has stood up a contract-manufacturing facility in the United Arab Emirates to produce its Guardian drone interceptor, according to reporting published Aug. 23. The facility, which came online in July, marks the company’s first Middle East manufacturing site and is central to its plan to become a global interceptor supplier.

Powerus and Aureus Greenway Holdings, the publicly traded company Powerus is merging into, confirmed the facility a day later in a joint announcement, describing it as a dedicated site in the Gulf Cooperation Council region established through a multi-year partnership with a regional defense manufacturer. Powerus said it retains responsibility for design, engineering and technical standards, with the regional partner supplying manufacturing capacity, and that the arrangement operates under applicable U.S. export control laws and authorizations.

Powerus-affiliated factories currently produce roughly 3,000 interceptors a month, and the company aims to scale that network to 15,000 monthly worldwide by mid-2027.

A Ukraine-Derived, Lego-Style Design
The Guardian is priced at roughly $5,000 and is based on a Ukrainian design that has proven effective against Russian Shahed drones. Reports have cited additional specifications: a burst speed of 340 kph, a cruise speed of 160 kph, a range of about 15 kilometers, and roughly 28 minutes of endurance. The interceptor is built from off-the-shelf microchips and GPS modules designed to snap together for rapid assembly, and it is not designed to counter ballistic missiles, a role that remains the province of systems like Lockheed Martin’s PAC-3.