Report: The US Army has deployed 10,000 interceptor drones to the Middle East.

In his speech released on Friday, US Army Secretary Dan Driesekol stated that the US Army has deployed 10,000 Merops intercept drones to the Middle East region to assist in responding to retaliatory strikes by Iran in the region. Driesekol revealed in an interview that these AI-equipped Merops intercept drones were urgently deployed to the region within 5 days after the sudden attack on Iran by the US and Israel on February 28. Each Merops drone costs around $14,000 to $15,000, but Driesekol emphasized that bulk purchases could reduce the unit cost to $3,000 to $5,000. The Merops drones are the result of the "Eagle Program" defense project, which has received support from Google CEO Eric Schmidt. The first batch of drones were sent to the Ukrainian battlefield in 2024.