Video purportedly shows Ukrainian unit running down Russian Shahed. The US is paying attention.

KYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian drone unit has posted a video reportedly showing American-made Merops interceptors running down an Iranian-designed Shahed drone, fresh proof the cheap weapon works as the U.S. Army moves to build a version it can field at scale.

Ukraine’s 427th Separate Unmanned Systems Regiment, known as Rarog, posted the unverified night-vision clip to its Telegram channel last month showing an interceptor closing on a one-way attack drone and a flash at the moment of contact. The unit flies Ukrainian-built interceptors alongside foreign systems, and did not specify which it used.

Foreign Policy Research Institute senior fellow Rob Lee shared the clip and called it the first public video he believed of Perennial Autonomy’s Merops, the American interceptor, “targeting Shahed/Geran one-way attack drones.”

The footage lands as the Army is moving to build a version of that drone it can call its own.

On June 23, the Army opened a Low-Cost Interceptor program at an industry day in Arlington, Virginia, seeking complete systems for under $1 million and government-owned designs it can hand to any manufacturer, with a first live-fire demonstration set for the fall.

The program would let the Army break the interceptor into pieces, buy or lease the design, and use contract manufacturers to build it — so it owns the weapon rather than depending on a single prime, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said in May.

The Army does not own the Merops design and cannot produce them at will. The new program would change that, letting it hand a government-owned blueprint to any manufacturer rather than buy from only a single contracting company.

The vendor that the U.S government appears to be seeking independence from in this case is Perennial Autonomy, the maker of Merops.

Former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt launched the defense startup in 2023 and signed a three-year, $500 million contract with the Pentagon in May — the largest single counter-drone deal it’s ever awarded — making the company uniquely influential to military supply chains.

The Pentagon turned to Merops after burning through hundreds of Patriot missiles defending against Iranian Shaheds, each Patriot costing more than $3 million and drawing down stockpiles Ukraine has long depended on for its own air defense.

The Army bought 13,000 Merops in eight days after the Iran war began in late February, at roughly $15,000 each, Driscoll told Congress in April.

“They protected U.S. troops,” the Army secretary told lawmakers, defending the cost as a fraction of what a Shahed costs to produce. “We will make that trade all day long.”

A Merops costs roughly $15,000 against a Shahed that runs $30,000 to $50,000.

The interceptor is a roughly three-foot, fixed-wing drone that flies up to 174 mph (280 km/h) and homes in on its target using thermal radar or radio-frequency sensors when its links are jammed.

It has downed more than 4,000 Russian drones in Ukraine, German production partner Twentyfour Industries said.

The system has conservatively accounted for 40% of all Shahed destruction in Ukraine , Brig. Gen. Curtis King, commanding general of the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, told reporters at a Polish base in November.

NATO has already built Merops interceptors into the forces protecting its eastern flank.

Romania folded Merops into its national air defenses on June 29, joining Poland in fielding it, and Lithuania bought 48 interceptors earlier this year. Officials said they are planning a deployment along the Danube corridor, where Russian drones have repeatedly crossed from the war next door, according to Reuters .

But the system still faces technical difficulties.

In mid-June, footage circulated of Merops interceptors failing to down a Russian drone, and a Romanian field test in April logged a failure the military attributed to “target maneuvering,” according to Greek publication Pronews . The outlet still called Merops one of the most effective low-cost tools in the drone war.

Ukraine’s military also flies an array of homegrown drones that run $1,000 to $3,000 a unit and have downed thousands of Russian drones since 2024, on a cost exchange that runs as steep as 85-to-1 in Kyiv’s favor.

Kyiv asked the Pentagon last August to help scale that manufacturing, offering to co-produce its cheap interceptors for the U.S.

Washington declined.

乌克兰基辅——据报道，乌克兰一个无人机部队发布了一段视频，视频显示美国制造的梅罗普斯拦截机击落了一架伊朗设计的沙赫德无人机，这再次证明了这种廉价武器的有效性，而美国陆军正在着手建造一种可以大规模部署的版本。

乌克兰第427独立无人系统团（绰号“拉罗格”）上个月在其Telegram频道上发布了一段未经证实的夜视视频，视频显示一架拦截机正在接近一架单向攻击无人机，并在接触瞬间出现闪光。该部队装备有乌克兰国产拦截机以及外国制造的拦截机，但并未具体说明使用了哪种拦截机。

外交政策研究所高级研究员罗伯·李分享了这段视频，并称这是他认为美国拦截无人机 Perennial Autonomy 的 Merops 首次公开视频，该无人机“瞄准了 Shahed/Geran 单向攻击无人机”。

这段视频发布之际，美国陆军正着手建造一款属于自己的无人机。

6 月 23 日，美国陆军在弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿举行的行业日活动上启动了一项低成本拦截器计划，旨在寻求价格低于 100 万美元的完整系统，以及可以交给任何制造商的政府所有设计，并计划在秋季进行首次实弹演示。

陆军部长丹·德里斯科尔在五月份表示，该计划将允许陆军把拦截器拆解成各个部分，购买或租赁设计，并利用合同制造商进行制造——这样陆军就拥有了这种武器，而不是依赖单一的主承包商。

陆军并不拥有Merops的设计，也无法随意生产。新项目将改变这一现状，允许陆军将政府所有的设计图纸交给任何制造商，而不是只能从一家承包公司采购。

美国政府似乎希望摆脱的供应商是 Perennial Autonomy，也就是 Merops 的制造商。

谷歌前首席执行官埃里克·施密特于 2023 年创立了这家国防初创公司，并于 5 月与五角大楼签署了一份为期三年、价值 5 亿美元的合同——这是该公司迄今为止获得的最大单笔反无人机交易——这使得该公司对军事供应链具有独特的影响力。

在消耗了数百枚爱国者导弹防御伊朗“烈士”导弹后，五角大楼转而使用梅罗普斯导弹防御系统。每枚爱国者导弹的成本超过 300 万美元，消耗了乌克兰长期以来赖以进行自身防空的库存。

德里斯科尔在四月份告诉国会，伊朗战争于二月底爆发后，陆军在八天内购买了 13,000 辆 Merops 装甲车，每辆价格约为 15,000 美元。

“它们保护了美军，”陆军部长告诉议员们，并辩称其成本仅为“沙赫德”导弹生产成本的一小部分。“我们随时都愿意进行这样的交易。”

Merops 的价格约为 15,000 美元，而 Shahed 的价格则在 30,000 美元到 50,000 美元之间。

这款拦截器是一款大约三英尺长的固定翼无人机，飞行速度可达每小时 174 英里（280 公里），当其链路受到干扰时，它可以使用热雷达或射频传感器来锁定目标。

德国生产合作伙伴 Twentyfour Industries 表示，该公司已在乌克兰击落 4000 多架俄罗斯无人机。

美国陆军第10防空导弹司令部司令柯蒂斯·金准将11月在波兰的一个基地告诉记者，该系统保守估计摧毁了乌克兰境内所有“沙赫德”导弹的40%。

北约已将梅罗普斯拦截机编入其东翼防御部队。

罗马尼亚于6月29日将“梅罗普斯”无人机纳入其国家防空系统，成为继波兰之后又一个装备该型无人机的国家。立陶宛则在今年早些时候购买了48架拦截机。据路透社报道，官员们表示，他们正计划在多瑙河走廊沿线部署该型无人机，此前俄罗斯无人机曾多次从邻国战区越境进入罗马尼亚境内。

但该系统仍面临技术难题。

6月中旬，一段视频显示Merops拦截机未能击落一架俄罗斯无人机。据希腊媒体Pronews报道，4月份罗马尼亚的一次实地测试也出现了一次失败，军方将其归咎于“目标机动”。该媒体仍然称Merops是无人机战争中最有效的低成本武器之一。

乌克兰军方还装备了一系列国产无人机，每架售价在 1000 美元到 3000 美元之间。自 2024 年以来，乌克兰已击落数千架俄罗斯无人机，而成本交换方面，基辅方面的优势高达 85 比 1。

去年8月，基辅方面请求五角大楼帮助扩大拦截器的生产规模，并提出与美国合作生产廉价拦截器。

华盛顿拒绝了。