INTERNACIONAL
Iran’s drone swarms challenge US air defenses as troops in Middle East face rising threats
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Cheap Iranian drone attacks are forcing the Pentagon to rapidly expand layered air defenses in the Middle East, as thousands of U.S. troops stationed across the region face an escalating aerial threat that is testing the limits of traditional missile defenses.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said Tuesday its air defenses detected nine ballistic missiles and 35 drones launched by Iran. Eight missiles were intercepted while one fell into the sea.
Of the 35 drones, 26 were shot down and nine crashed on UAE soil, the country said.
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The engagement highlights how the battlefield is shifting.
Ballistic missiles travel high and fast, allowing long-range interceptors such as the Patriot air defense system and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD) to engage them predictably. Drone swarms, which Iran increasingly has relied on in recent exchanges, present a different challenge to U.S. forces.
They fly lower, move slower and often arrive in clusters, making them harder to detect and more likely to strain defenses built for high-speed threats.
U.S. troops already have been directly affected by one-way attack drones in the region. In a March 1 strike near Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, six American service members were killed and dozens wounded when an Iranian drone hit a tactical operations center.
Each interception also carries a cost.
High-end missile interceptors can run into the millions of dollars per shot.
Many of the drones they are designed to defeat are far cheaper and produced in large numbers — creating what defense officials have described as a growing «math problem» in modern warfare. The U.S. can end up firing expensive missiles at relatively inexpensive drones, a dynamic that becomes harder to sustain if attacks come in waves.
That imbalance is accelerating a push inside the Pentagon to expand a layered counter-drone strategy — combining short-range interceptors, electronic warfare tools and emerging technologies such as high-energy lasers.
For U.S. forces in the region, larger drone waves increase the odds that defenses are stretched, and that even one drone could reach a base or ship.
This marks the first sustained confrontation in which U.S. forces are facing large-scale, state-backed drone waves as a central feature of the battlefield — forcing commanders to adapt in real time and draw on lessons learned from Ukraine, where mass-produced Shahed drones reshaped air defense strategy.
An Iran-made Shahed-136 unmanned aerial vehicle is displayed at a rally in Azadi (Freedom) Square in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 11, 2026. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/via Getty Images)
Lasers and staying power
Among the new U.S. systems drawing renewed attention are high-energy lasers.
Directed energy is being developed and tested for counter-drone missions and has been used in limited domestic contexts.
U.S. defense officials say lasers offer a potentially significant advantage: Once powered, they can fire repeatedly without expending traditional ammunition.
Unlike missile interceptors, which must be replaced after each launch, a laser system can continue engaging targets as long as sufficient power is available. In theory, that provides sustained defensive capacity during large drone waves.
«It’s a function now of our procurement system, moving those things to the troops as fast as we can,» retired Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan, former commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the U.S. 5th Fleet, told Fox News Digital.
Donegan acknowledged the technology is real but not yet fully fielded across combat zones.
Scaling high-energy systems requires power generation, integration and infrastructure — all of which take time.
A U.S. official confirmed to Fox News Digital directed energy systems have been tested and employed to counter drones in combat scenarios and the Pentagon «continues to work to scale this capability as quickly as possible.»
Central Command, the U.S. military command tasked with overseeing the Middle East, declined to comment on whether lasers are part of its current drone defense system against Iran.
A Polish Army soldier carries an AS3 Surveyor interceptor drone, part of the U.S. «MEROPS» counter-drone system, during a live-fire demonstration at the Deba training grounds in Poland, Nov. 18, 2025. (tur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Building defensive depth
While lasers represent a longer-term evolution, commanders are relying on multiple defensive layers today.
The recent deployment of the Merops drone-on-drone interceptor into U.S. Central Command reflects that approach.
Developed by U.S.-backed defense firm Perennial Autonomy, Merops is a mobile counter-drone system that launches small interceptor drones from a truck-mounted platform to disable incoming threats. The system was battle-tested against Shahed drones in Ukraine and fielded in NATO countries such as Poland before being accelerated into the Middle East as drone activity intensified.
A former defense official familiar with counter-drone operations said effective counter-UAS capability depends on overlapping systems integrated around high-value targets rather than reliance on a single interceptor.
«Effective counter-UAS capability is overlapping,» the official said. «No one system solves the drone problem by itself.»
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U.S. ships in the region rely on short-range missile systems such as the Rolling Airframe Missile and Sea Sparrow, along with the Close-In Weapon System, a radar-guided rapid-fire gun that can engage threats at close range.
Ground-based defenses incorporate radar detection with specialized interceptors such as Raytheon’s Coyote family, designed to defeat small unmanned aircraft. Industry systems like Anduril’s Roadrunner add autonomous interceptor drones capable of engaging airborne threats and, in some configurations, returning for reuse.
Success begins with early detection. Radar systems track low-flying drones and give operators time to choose whether to jam, intercept or destroy incoming threats.
«We’ve built into the weapon systems of all our military platforms that are combatants counter-drone capability,» Donegan said.
The recent deployment of the Merops drone-on-drone interceptor into U.S. Central Command reflects that approach. (WOJTEK RADWANSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Lessons from Ukraine
Iran’s Shahed drones were refined during Russia’s war in Ukraine, where cities faced nightly waves of low-cost one-way attack aircraft. There, layered defenses combining short-range interceptors, electronic warfare and evolving technologies proved essential in absorbing sustained attacks.
Ukrainian officials have said some cities faced more than a hundred drones in a single night, forcing air defense crews to remain on alert for hours at a time.
Ukraine has since offered to share its battlefield experience with the United States and Gulf partners as Iranian drone activity expands in the Middle East.
Officials say those lessons are influencing U.S. planning.
«JIATF-401 is accelerating procurement of multiple counter-UAS capabilities across several combatant commands, including sensing radars, kinetic interceptors and other available systems, not just Merops, to expand layered defenses in the U.S. Central Command area of operations,» a U.S. official said.
«Some of the capabilities being surged to support our warfighters reflect lessons we are learning and technology we are transferring from the battlefield in Ukraine.»
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The result is expanding defensive depth — designed to absorb and defeat a threat that is inexpensive, persistent and increasingly central to modern warfare.
For the troops stationed at those bases and aboard those ships, that layered defense is what stands between a drone intercepted in the sky and one that reaches its target.
As drone production scales and tactics evolve, the contest between low-cost attack drones and layered air defenses playing out in Iran the future of warfare itself.
drones,war with iran,ukraine,conflicts defense
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INTERNACIONAL
Trump-backed affordable housing overhaul clears Senate, while House GOP raises red flags
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A massive bipartisan swell advanced a Trump-backed affordable housing package out of the Senate on Thursday, but its fate in the House is up in the air.
The bill, renamed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act to incorporate a previous Senate housing bill that stalled last year, easily sailed through the upper chamber, given that many lawmakers support the wide-ranging slate of measures designed to increase the supply of affordable housing.
In its original form, the legislation was primarily intended to help first-time homebuyers and lower-income Americans enter the housing market or gain access to more affordable housing options.
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President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on March 2, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
The Senate tweaked the legislation, adding a ban on institutional investors sought by President Donald Trump, who earlier this year signed an executive order barring the practice. During his State of the Union address last month, Trump urged Congress to codify the ban and said, «We want homes for people, not for corporations.»
That provision gave some heartburn, notably to Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and several industry groups, who warned that the way it was designed — forcing owners of 350 or more units to sell after seven years — would kneecap the build-to-rent market and harm the supply of rentals throughout the country.
That was not enough to slow the bill down in the Senate, but Trump’s declaration that he wouldn’t sign any bills unless the Senate passed voter ID legislation, along with House Republicans grumbling over changes to the bill, could spell trouble ahead.
Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., co-lead of the House’s version of the bill, told Fox News Digital, «It seems to me that there are outstanding concerns with the Senate’s housing bill as currently drafted.»
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Rep. Mike Flood speaks at a press conference with other House Republicans on the 15th day of the government shutdown in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 15, 2025. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
He echoed Schatz’s concern about the build-to-rent supply consequences and added that the bill was «intended to cut costs, but the Senate removed important bipartisan House provisions that would have slashed barriers to building more homes.»
«Their process is still ongoing, and I am holding out hope for some fixes, but time runs short,» Flood said. «Given the bill’s current state, I think a conference may be the most viable path forward.»
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he believes that once the bill makes it through the Senate, «the White House will be wanting to work with our House counterparts to try and get it passed over there and get it on the President’s desk.»
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., questions former executives of failed banks during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on May 16, 2023, in Washington. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
«We know we’ve added some things to the bill here in the Senate that were designed to make it more palatable to the House. I know there are other issues they would like to address in it, some of the banking issues too, but I think this is, by and large, a housing bill.»
«So, we think we have really put together a strong bill,» Thune continued. «It’s something that hasn’t been done in over a decade.»
It’s a product of negotiations between Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the chair of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., its top Democrat.
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The pair argued that the changes made should make the legislation more palatable to their House counterparts.
«The package includes the vast majority of the Senate’s unanimously supported ROAD to Housing Act, incorporates bipartisan ideas from the House, and takes a good first step to rein in corporate landlords that are squeezing families out of homeownership,» Warren said earlier this month. «Congress should pass this package and continue working on further legislation to combat our nation’s housing crisis.»
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INTERNACIONAL
La “batalla del agua” en Medio Oriente: las monarquías del Golfo temen un ataque iraní a sus plantas desalinizadoras
Las monarquías del Golfo son reinos de petróleo, gas y agua salada.
Son Estados supermillonarios, pero tienen una gran debilidad. Kuwait, Arabia Saudita, Bahréin, los Emiratos Árabes Unidos, Qatar y Omán carecen de suficiente agua potable natural.
Nadan en petróleo, pero no en agua dulce. Dependen, con diferentes matices, necesidades y urgencias, de las numerosas plantas desalinizadoras construidas en la región.
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Irán lo sabe. Esa es una carta marcada que los ayatollah guardan en su búnker más secreto. Mientras buscan incendiar el Estrecho de Ormuz, por donde pasa el 20% del comercio petrolero mundial, el objetivo es extender el caos económico a todo el mundo.
El domingo pasado dio una primera muestra de lo que podría venir: bombardeó una planta desalinizadora en Bahréin, un país que alberga a la Quinta Flota de los Estados Unidos.
“La interrupción intencional de la infraestructura hídrica constituye una clara violación del derecho internacional humanitario y, ante todo, una carga para los civiles, quienes carecen de iniciativa y capacidad de decisión en esta guerra”, alertó a TN el científico iraní Kaveh Madani, exsubdirector del Departamento de Medio Ambiente de Irán y actual director del Instituto para el Agua, el Ambiente y la Salud (INWEH) de las Naciones Unidas.
El agua, el recurso más preciado
El agua es otra batalla estratégica para presionar a las monarquías del Golfo, aliadas de Estados Unidos. Es un recurso esencial. Irán también tiene enormes problemas hídricos por una extensa sequía que llevó a las autoridades a pensar en trasladar Teherán, la capital.
“Todo el mundo piensa en Arabia Saudita y en sus vecinos como petroestados. Pero yo los llamo reinos del agua salada. Son superpotencias hídricas creadas por el ser humano y alimentadas por combustibles fósiles. Es a la vez un logro monumental del siglo XX y una forma particular de vulnerabilidad”, resumió Michael Christopher Low, director del Middle East Center de la Universidad de Utah, citado por Euronews. Mujeres iraníes se manifiestan en Teherán en apoyo al gobierno de los ayatollah (Foto; EFE)
El académico Abdullah al-Arian, de la Universidad de Georgetown, en Qatar, advirtió a TN que “el riesgo de una escalada” de este tipo está latente y más aún si se extienden los ataques estadounidenses e israelíes.
“Irán busca aumentar los costos de esta guerra para los países vecinos e incluso para la economía global, en un intento de obligar a Estados Unidos a retractarse de su política de cambio de régimen y, en última instancia, a poner fin a sus ataques”, afirmó.
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Al-Arian, especialista en historia de la política estadounidense hacia Medio Oriente, dijo que “las represalias iraníes intentaron reconfigurar el panorama de seguridad en los países del Golfo y perturbar cada vez más los viajes, el comercio e incluso la vida cotidiana en países que actúan como importantes centros de la economía global”.
“Este tipo de ataque supondría una gran presión sobre el suministro de agua de estos países y requeriría planes de contingencia para fuentes alternativas de agua», indicó.
La dependencia hídrica de los países del Golfo
Irán atacó en los últimos días infraestructura energética de los Emiratos Árabes Unidos y Kuwait que causaron daños a plantas desalinizadoras. El domingo un dron iraní había golpeado a una planta en Bahréin, según denunció el gobierno de ese país. Teherán también denunció ataques de este tipo en su territorio.
Un informe del Centro Árabe de Washington, citado por el diario El Mundo, reveló que los estados del Consejo de Cooperación del Golfo producen el 40% del total de agua desalinizada del mundo.
Según el reporte, el país más vulnerable del área es Kuwait. El 90% de sus recursos hídricos sale de sus complejas plantas desalinizadoras que toman el agua de mar, la procesan y la convierten en agua dulce. Omán lo sigue con un 86% y Arabia Saudita con el 70%. El menos dependiente es Qatar. Religiosos chiítas paquistaníes portan imágenes del asesinado guía supremo iraní Ali Jamenei y su hijo y sucesor, Mojtaba Jamenei (Foto: REUTERS/Imran Ali)
En el área del Golfo hay 450 plantas desalinizadoras que surten a unas 100 millones de personas. Según el periódico español, las monarquías del área gastaron más de U$S 50.000 millones en inversiones en este sector entre 2004 y 2024.
Otro blanco posible: el sistema financiero y bancario
Pero no solo el agua está en la mira de Irán. También el sistema bancario y financiero.
Las Fuerzas Armadas iraníes acusaron el miércoles a Estados Unidos e Israel de atacar un banco estratégico del país utilizado para pagar salarios a efectivos del ejército.
Según advirtió el mando unificado de las Fuerzas Armadas, este ataque “ilegítimo y no convencional” podría tener una “respuesta recíproca y dolorosa”.
Además, pidió a la población en Medio Oriente a no aproximarse a un kilómetro de bancos estadounidenses o israelíes.
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La amenaza fue tomada muy en serio en las monarquías del Golfo.
El grupo financiero estadounidense Citi y numerosas empresas occidentales, como la consultora Deloitte, pidieron a sus empleados evacuar sus oficinas en el Centro Financiero Internacional de Dubái (DIFC), reveló AFP.
La consultora británica PwC anunció que cerrará hasta nuevo aviso sus oficinas en Arabia Saudita, Qatar, Emiratos Árabes Unidos y Kuwait.
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