“NAVAL STATION LEOVIGILDO GANTIOQUI, Philippines -- On a ridge overlooking the South China Sea, U.S. Marines in tactical vehicles took aim at a fixed-wing drone soaring toward them. The cannons on the vehicles fired, puffs of smoke wafting from the weapons. After a few tries, the Marines hit their target and the drone tumbled into the sea.
"Missed a few rounds," Staff Sgt. Noah Konie said. "But at the end of the day, it's still in the water."
The drill in the Philippines in April offered a window into how the U.S. is tackling one of the most pressing problems of modern warfare: Taking down low-cost drones without using missiles that can cost more than 10 times as much to produce.
For the Marines, the vehicles they used, collectively known as the Marine Air Defense Integrated System, or Madis, are part of the solution.
The Madis consists of two Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, the successor to the Humvee. One of the vehicles is mounted with advanced radar designed to make it easier to hit flying targets. The second vehicle carries Stinger missiles. The system also features electronic-warfare capabilities such as jamming. Both Madis vehicles are equipped with a cannon and a smaller machine gun that, along with new types of ammunition, are becoming a growing part of antidrone operations.
In the Middle East, for example, the U.S. and Gulf nations have been using helicopters and aircraft with guns to shoot down Iranian drones. But they also have relied on more expensive and harder-to-produce air-to-air missiles, such as the AIM-120, that cost $1 million each, according to a report from the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The idea of the Madis is to give commanders in the field several options -- guns, missiles or electronic warfare -- so they can choose the best way to protect troops and other assets from drones without breaking the bank.
"Stingers, they're going to be more capable [than guns]. . .but they're also going to be more limited in terms of number," said Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at CSIS.
The mobility of the Madis is particularly important for the Marines, who are preparing for a potential fight in the island environments of the Indo-Pacific that would be central in any conflict with China over Taiwan or the South China Sea.
The Marines say that one of the Madis's most promising features is its ability to fire a specialized 30mm round with a proximity fuze. The fuze triggers the round to detonate when a target gets close, so the shooter doesn't need to score a direct hit. While often less accurate than missiles, the 30mm round has the potential to reduce costs. Even if it takes five rounds to down a drone, the total cost would be about $11,250 for each drone, according to an estimate from Steven Sawyers, a former ammunition technician at the logistics support and procurement agency of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Other antidrone systems are far more expensive. The Stinger missiles on the Madis system can cost $430,000 each, said Sawyers, while the Coyote drone interceptor, which looks like a cross between a missile and a drone and has been used in the Mideast war, can cost between $100,000 and $125,000, said Sawyers.
Iran's Shahed-class drones, which have been launched against the U.S. and allies in the Middle East, and which Russia has used in Ukraine, cost roughly $30,000. Smaller quadcopter drones cost between $1,500 and $5,000, said Sawyers, the founder of Integrated Synergy Consulting, a U.K. consulting firm.
The 30mm rounds offer a reliable backup against an Iranian Shahed if other methods such as jamming don't take down the drone first, he said.
Although they are cheaper than missiles, U.S. defense manufacturers still face the challenge of making sufficient quantities of the rounds, given that hundreds of thousands more will be required.
"Proximity fuzes are precision electromechanical devices, and the lines that build them at scale are few," Sawyers said.
Virginia-based Northrop Grumman, which was awarded a more than $200 million contract by the Army to produce a proximity fuze round, said it has invested in its facilities and research as demand rises for the ammunition. L3Harris, which makes fuzes for 30mm ammunition, is "rapidly scaling to meet the growing demand across a range of fuzes," a spokeswoman for the Florida-based company said.
At the recent drill in the Philippines, the Marines fired dozens of inert training rounds to practice hitting one-way-attack and surveillance drones and a mix of fixed-wing and rotor targets. In general, Konie said they used their cannon and the 30mm ammunition for larger targets.
Toward the end of the drill, the Marines launched a Stinger missile. It downed the drone in one shot.” [1]
1. World News: U.S. Finds Way to Down a Drone Without Spending $1 Million. Cherney, Mike. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 02 June 2026: A8.
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