Incursions by cheap Russian drones over NATO territory – shot down by Dutch F-35 fighter jets in Poland using expensive AIM-9X missiles –show the bloc must learn from Ukraine’s drone combat experience.
While Russia’s multi-pupose Gerbera drone can be built using artisanal methods using polystyrene foam and plywood for around $10,000 - including motor, camera and 4G modem for navigation and targeting - the cost of the U.S. AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles used to bring them down over Poland is upwards of $400,000.
Ukraine’s neighbours were warned in July that Polish and Lithuanian SIM cards had been found in downed Gerbera drones but were forced to send fighter jets to intercept them rather than using machine
guns, helicopters or interceptor drones as the Ukrainians try to do. The Gerbera is designed to overwhelm air defence systems mostly as decoy devices - although they can carry up to 10kg of explosive - simply by being so cheap and simple to produce that they can be built in large numbers very quickly.
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