US military: The drone era is changing warfare

2026-06-10 09:11:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Just over three months into the Gulf conflict, the importance of low-cost, mass-produced weapons systems, particularly drones and munitions, has been highlighted, and the limitations of relying on expensive defense technologies to counter them have become apparent, according to Nathan Diller, head of defense technology company Mach Industries.

Diller, a retired United States Air Force colonel, said in an interview with Radio Free Europe that the conflict has heightened the urgency for allied countries to strengthen military industry supply chains and create more manufacturing resilience, drawing parallels with lessons emerging from Russia's war in Ukraine.

"When we see low-cost drones and cheap munitions being shot down by very expensive systems, that's a lesson we can't learn fast enough ," said Diller, who served as assistant director for Aeronautics in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during US President Donald Trump's first term.

As a former fighter pilot, Diller said traditional military capabilities remain key, but newer technologies could have reduced the cost and duration of the Iran-Israel conflict, making deterrence quicker.

"It's taken two decades to ignore this approach to war and this approach to mass production ," he said, adding that recent US government initiatives, supported by Congress, are helping to strengthen future deterrence, he said.

"The factory is the weapon"

Diller said one of the most important lessons from the use of unmanned systems in conflicts from Ukraine to the Middle East is that the production capacity itself has become a strategic asset.

"What surprises me is that we still haven't realized the extent to which the factory is the weapon itself ," he said.

According to Diller, a country's ability to quickly produce and adapt military equipment could become a decisive factor in future conflicts and deterrence strategies.

"The speed at which a country can create such a factory will be directly proportional to our ability for future prevention," he said.

"The rapid development of these factories, where hardware devices can develop at the pace of software, is a cornerstone for future peace and prosperity," Diller added.

Speaking about the current conflict in the Gulf region, Diller said that continued diplomatic engagement between Iran, Israel and the US, along with a pause in large-scale missile exchanges, gives reason for cautious optimism, despite recent ceasefire violations.

"The fact that talks are continuing is positive ," he said, referring to ongoing efforts aimed at preventing a wider regional conflict after more than 100 days of confrontation.

"The fact that there are no missiles in the air every day is a good thing," Diller said, adding that efforts to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction are helping to make the world safer.

His comments came before the US attacked Iran on Tuesday after blaming it for the downing of a US helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz.

While politicians are increasingly questioning whether repeated ceasefire violations are becoming more costly than the conflict itself, Diller argued that a level of uncertainty remains essential to military deterrence.

"Strategic uncertainty is a necessity," he said, adding that the inability of adversaries to fully anticipate the consequences of their actions often discourages escalation. /REL