The cost of stopping a drone changes by 100,000 times depending on whether you use a fancy missile or just electronic jamming.
March 24, 2026
Original Paper
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems Technologies: A Comparative Study of Kinetic, Electronic Warfare, and Directed Energy Countermeasures (2022-2026)
SSRN · 6380460
The Takeaway
Defense departments currently face a massive cost-exchange asymmetry, spending up to $4.75 million in interceptor missiles to down $20,000 drones. The study quantifies that electronic warfare can neutralize these same threats for as little as $0.01 per engagement, revealing a staggering gap in economic efficiency for modern air defense.
From the abstract
<p>The proliferation of low-cost unmanned aerial systems (UAS) has created an unprecedented cost-exchange asymmetry in modern air defense, exemplified by the expenditure of $3-5 million interceptor missiles against drone threats costing as little as $20,000. This quantitative study conducted a comprehensive cost-effectiveness analysis of counter-UAS (C-UAS) technologies across kinetic, electronic warfare (EW), and directed energy weapon (DEW) domains during the critical period of 2022-2026. Util