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Cheap drones are reshaping modern warfare

NPR Topics: News·@ScottNeuman·7 months ago
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By Scott Neuman , Kat Lonsdorf Wladimir van Wilgenburg stands in a residential neighborhood in Erbil, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and points out incoming drones high in the sky. "The U.S. defense systems, as you can see, are taking down the drones," he says in a video recorded during the first days of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran and sent to NPR. First one, then another, is obliterated in a puff of smoke, sending explosions reverberating through the apartment block several seconds later. Van Wilgenburg, a journalist based in Erbil, says drones — sent by Iran to attack U.S. facilities in the region — have become a daily occurrence over the city in recent weeks. So, too, have the interceptions. "Most of these drones … don't reach their destination," he says. With Operation Epic Fury well into its third week, there are two increasingly urgent questions: how long U.S. defense systems can continue to hold off such attacks — not just in Iraq, but throughout the Middle East — and whether the U.S.…

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