Eric Schmidt, the former Google chief executive, founded Merops, an AI-powered counter-drone system developed with Ukrainian fighters experienced in combatting Iranian drones. The U.S. military sent thousands of Merops units to the Middle East after the conflict with Iran began and established training programs for the system, yet it remains unclear whether the units have been operationally deployed. This development highlights how artificial intelligence is being tested as a potential solution to an asymmetric warfare problem that has strained American military resources .

Why Is the U.S. Struggling to Defend Against Iranian Drones?

The core challenge is a stark cost imbalance. Iranian drones, built with commercial-grade technology, cost roughly $35,000 to produce. The high-tech military interceptors used to shoot them down cost exponentially more. A single Standard Missile 2 (SM-2) interceptor fired from a Navy destroyer can exceed $1 million per unit, and military protocol requires firing at least two missiles per target. The Patriot air-defense system's PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement interceptors follow the same two-missile minimum, making each engagement extraordinarily expensive .

In just the first six days of the conflict with Iran, the U.S. spent $11.3 billion on defense operations. The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank, estimated in early April that the U.S. had spent approximately between $25 and $35 billion on the war, with interceptors driving much of the cost. Many missile defense experts now fear that interceptor stockpiles are running dangerously low .

This cost imbalance reflects a deeper strategic problem. Most American air-defense systems were designed during the Cold War to counter fewer, faster, higher-end threats like aircraft and ballistic missiles, not mass drone raids. Iran often launches multiple Shahed-136 drones at once, given their low price tag. The drones are programmed with a destination before launch and can travel roughly 1,500 miles, putting targets across the Middle East within reach .

What Defense Options Are Currently Available to the Pentagon?

Military planners have explored multiple defensive approaches, each with distinct trade-offs and limitations. Early warning aircraft can spot drones from several hundred miles away and dispatch fighter jets like the F-16 to intercept them using Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) II rockets from about six miles away. However, these defensive air patrols are not always available because of the vast scope of the conflict, and Iran has also targeted the early warning aircraft themselves .

Ground-based systems offer another layer of defense, though they face their own constraints:

• Coyote System: Designed specifically to counter drones at shorter range, it can intercept drones up to around nine miles away and is significantly cheaper than many other ground-based defense systems. Despite being both effective and cost-efficient, relatively few Coyotes have been procured by the U.S. military in recent years.
• Patriot Air-Defense System: The Army's standard air-defense system, typically stationed at military bases, can shoot down a drone from up to around 27 miles away with PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement interceptors, though military protocol requires at least two missiles per engagement.
• Directed Energy Weapons: The Pentagon invested over a billion dollars in fiscal year 2024 researching lasers that would cost only $3 per shot and have a range of 12 miles, but those systems have yet to be used in the field.

When Iran-backed militias launched attacks on U.S. ground troops in 2023 and 2024, there were so few Coyotes available that troops had to shuffle the systems between eight different bases in the region almost daily .

How Does Schmidt's Merops System Differ From Traditional Defense?

Schmidt's Merops counter-drone system represents a fundamentally different approach: artificial intelligence-powered interceptor drones that can theoretically hunt and take down enemy projectiles from a short range. The appeal is clear. Rather than firing expensive missiles at cheap targets, the U.S. could deploy autonomous systems that are faster, more cost-effective, and capable of learning from engagement patterns. Schmidt's involvement lends credibility to the venture; his experience at Google and his subsequent focus on defense technology position him as a bridge between Silicon Valley innovation and military procurement .

The military set up training on the Merops system in the middle of the war, according to Business Insider reporting. However, the source material explicitly states that it remains unclear whether the thousands of Merops units sent to the Middle East have been operationally deployed .

Steps to Understanding the Future of AI in Military Defense

• Cost-Per-Engagement Analysis: Compare the expense of traditional interceptors, often exceeding $1 million per shot, against emerging AI-powered alternatives like Merops, which aim to reduce the cost-per-engagement ratio significantly.
• Deployment Readiness Tracking: Monitor whether Merops units are actually deployed in combat operations and track their effectiveness rates, as the military is still in the training phase with the system.
• Stockpile Sustainability Evaluation: Track Pentagon announcements about interceptor production rates and reserve levels, since experts warn that current stockpiles may be running dangerously low.
• Competitive Technology Monitoring: Follow developments in directed energy weapons, lasers, and other emerging defense systems that could eventually offer cheaper alternatives to traditional missiles.

Michael C. Horowitz, who served as a Pentagon official in the Biden administration, explained the core challenge facing military planners. "Countering drones has been a major priority for the Pentagon for years," he stated. "But there has not been the impetus to scale a solution" .

"This category of lower-cost precision strike just didn't exist at the time that most American air defenses were developed," said Michael C. Horowitz.

Michael C. Horowitz, Former Pentagon Official

The real fear among defense experts is not affordability but depletion. Tom Karako, the director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, warned of the deeper concern: "What scares me is that we will run out of these things. Not that we can't afford them, but that we'll run out before we can replace them" .

"What scares me is that we will run out of these things. Not that we can't afford them, but that we'll run out before we can replace them," said Tom Karako.

Tom Karako, Director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies

Schmidt's Merops system, if successfully deployed and proven effective, could help address this stockpile crisis by offering a reusable, AI-driven alternative to single-use missiles. The fact that the military is training personnel on the system even as the conflict unfolds suggests that Pentagon planners see potential in the technology, even if operational results remain unclear. As the conflict continues and interceptor supplies dwindle, the pressure to make AI-powered drone defense systems work will only intensify .