Ukraine's experience priceless as Iran war sees long-range strike drones go global

Ukraine's experience priceless as Iran war sees long-range strike drones go global by Francis Farrell March 4, 2026 3:08 PM 10 min read Ukrainian servicemen from a mobile air defense unit fire a machine gun at Russian drones during a night patrol in Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine, on Dec. 2, 2024. (Maksym Kishka / Suspilne Ukraine / JSC “UA:PBC” / Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images) War by Francis Farrell The Trump administration's move to launch a large-scale strike operation in Iran has seen state-on-state war return to the Middle East with a vengeance. Hours after the first U.S. and Israeli strikes began hitting the country on Feb. 28, Tehran — despite its leadership being decapitated on the first day of the fighting — retaliated with large scale missile and drone attacks across the region, with a focus on U.S. military bases and embassies. On top of its arsenal of ballistic missiles, Iran's weapon of choice is one that is all too familiar to Ukraine: the Shahed-type drone . First used against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure in late 2022, the Iranian designed long-range suicide drone quickly became one of Moscow's most well-known weapons of war, terrorizing cities, demolishing infrastructure, and hammering important targets on the front line. Become a member – go ad‑free While the cost and production demands of ballistic and cruise missiles have placed an upper limit on Moscow's use of them, the same doesn't apply for the Shahed-type drones, with some mass overnight attacks often seeing upwards of 500 launched at once. Now, the war of massed, cheap long-range drones has gone global in the Middle East, and early results have shown a lack of readiness for air defenses to handle them. Only Ukraine's military has anything like the experience of facing this new threat, and amid the explosion of war in and around Iran, Kyiv's unique abilities gained immediate recognition on the world stage. Facing waves of dozens — sometimes hundreds — of Russian Shahed-type drones ...