When Donald Trump unveiled plans for a counter-drone installation on the roof of the new White House ballroom, critics called it theater. They may be right about the installation. But they are wrong about the threat. 

I have watched the character of warfare change faster in the past four years than in the previous forty. In Ukraine, a one-way attack drone that costs a few hundred dollars routinely destroys Russian armored vehicles worth millions. Both sides now field these systems by the hundreds of thousands. Entire stretches of the front are governed not by artillery or air superiority in the traditional sense, but by small, expendable aircraft that soldiers can carry in rucksacks and launch from tree lines. I have stood in Ukrainian production facilities and seen the pace of their innovation. We are well behind.

If we build a counter-drone strategy the old way, we will field systems that are obsolete the day they arrive

If we build a counter-drone strategy the old way, we will field systems that are obsolete the day they arrive

Here is what that war is teaching us: the drone has become the defining weapon of modern conflict, not because it is the most powerful weapon on the battlefield, but because it is the cheapest effective one. A determined adversary doesn’t need a sophisticated air force. It needs a commercially available aircraft, a basic payload and enough time to practice. The barriers to entry are low. That’s what makes this........

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