Why the Gulf countries rely on Ukraine's drones. “They did to tanks what muskets once did to knights in shining armor”

In just two days, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed three military cooperation agreements with Gulf countries that want access to Ukrainian drone technology. Bombarded by Iranian drones, Arab states are looking for more efficient and cheaper alternatives for sophisticated equipment bought from the West.

During his tour of the states of the Arabian Peninsula, Zelenskiy signed, on Friday, a first security cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia. Similar agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar followed on Saturday.

“The agreement provides for a collaboration in the technological field, the development of joint investments and the exchange of expertise in combating missiles and unmanned aerial systems”, stated the Ministry of Defense of Qatar, quoted by Agerpres.

Drones in exchange for missiles

According to Zelensky, the agreements have a duration of ten years and will involve the construction of factories both in Ukraine and in the countries with which he signed the agreements

Kiev has proposed replacing its drone interceptors with the much more expensive air defense missiles that Gulf countries use to shoot down Iranian drones. Ukraine says it needs more missiles to counter Russia's near-daily missile strikes.

If Kiev needs more missiles to intercept Russian missiles, in the Persian Gulf the situation is the opposite: swarms of drones launched by Iran have been hitting military and industrial targets for a month, and their destruction is quickly depleting the stockpiles of expensive missiles of the attacked Arab countries: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar.

And Iran is betting on drones

On March 24, the Institute for the Study of War presented a statistic, based on official data, on the share of drones in attacks launched by Iran. If in the first days of the war, Tehran relied more on missiles, things have changed radically.

For example, Bahrain was attacked on March 23 with 36 drones and only two missiles. Kuwait was targeted on March 20 with 25 drones and a single missile. On the same day, Saudi Arabia faced 76 drones and no missiles. In the case of the United Arab Emirates, Iranian missiles have not outnumbered drones launched in any of the days since February 28, when 209 drones reached the Emirates, compared to 137 missiles.

Ukraine sensed the opportunity for collaboration from the first days of the war. Since March 6, Ukrainian experts in drone warfare have been sent to the Middle East, 230 of them since the first days.

Trump's ironies

Ukraine's involvement in countering Iran's attacks has been downplayed by President Trump. “No, we don't need any help (from Ukraine) in drone defense,” Trump said in the interview. “We know more about drones than anyone. In fact, we have the best drones in the world,” he said on March 13.

It's not just Trump who looks down on Ukrainian drone expertise. “Who is the biggest drone manufacturer in Ukraine? It's Ukrainian housewives. They have 3-D printers in their kitchens and they make drone components. That's not innovation,” Armin Papperger, head of Germany's Rheinmetall, one of the giants of the world's arms industry, told The Atlantic.

American generals are impressed

But the states under Iran's attacks seem to have other preferences, and not just them. “Their level of innovation is out of this world,” Lt. Gen. Steven Whitney told a US Senate defense committee hearing.

“I would say they are world leaders in the technology of suicide attack drones,” said General Christopher Cavoli, former commander of US forces in Europe, recalling that Russia has lost thousands of tanks since the beginning of the invasion, most of them destroyed by drones worth around $400 apiece. For this reason, the Russians began to prefer assaults with infantry troops or less visible means of transport than armored vehicles: motorcycles, scooters, etc.

At the same time, the Ukrainians also learned how to intercept enemy drones, including through the widespread use of jamming techniques.

“With only a few hundred dollars, Ukraine's drones can seriously damage a military vehicle worth millions”

“It's true: Ukraine's drones are assembled mainly from imported parts, such as rotors, motors, cameras and processors. Most of them come from China (…) But it is precisely the fact that they are so cheap – especially when compared to sophisticated weapons systems produced by companies such as Lockheed Martin or Rheinmetall – that makes them devastating. For only a few hundred dollars, Ukraine's drones can seriously damage a military vehicle worth millions. They have done to tanks and cannons what muskets they once did to knights in shining armor,” notes Simon Shuster, a journalist at The Atlantic specializing in the war in Ukraine. He points out that by earlier this year, the Ukrainians had created what they call a “kill zone” where drones can detect and destroy almost anything that moves. “In their ground assaults through that terrain, the Russians now prefer to advance on foot, sometimes using motorcycles, electric scooters, or even horses—all of which have a better chance than a tank of escaping the vigilance of a Ukrainian drone,” Shuster writes.

Unable to keep pace with Russia's production of armor and artillery pieces, Ukraine has turned to drones. In 2023, it produced almost 150,000, in 2024 it reached one million, so that in 2025 the production will reach four million drones, a figure that could be doubled in 2026. Russia has also started to turn to drones, but the versatility and efficiency of the Russian ones are below the Ukrainian ones.

Ukrainian anti-drone systems, already in the Gulf

Based on this ability, Zelenski now hopes to get money and missiles from the Gulf countries to support the war with Russia. Ukrainian involvement in the interception of Iranian drones is already taking shape in the Gulf.

The Iranian army announced on Saturday that it had hit a warehouse of Ukrainian anti-drone systems in the United Arab Emirates, which would have served to support American forces, according to AFP.

“A warehouse of Ukrainian anti-drone systems located in Dubai and intended to help the American army (…) was targeted and destroyed,” announced the center of the inter-arms command Khatam al-Anbiya, in a statement broadcast by Iranian state television. Kiev denied the announcement of the destruction of the warehouse, but not its existence.