Cheap drones are reshaping modern warfare — and catching the U.S. off guard

Scott Neuman

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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.