Eastern-flank allies turn to a $15,000 Ukraine-tested interceptor to meet Russian drones

The board-deck version of this story is a doubling: at least six countries buying Merops ^[1] against three NATO operators in November 2025 ^[3], a ratio of two to one ^[2]. The two counts do not measure the same thing. The six include countries still in the process of buying, and the US defense official who gave Business Insider the count, speaking anonymously, said most of them, though not all, are NATO members on the Eastern flank ^[1][2]. The November figure counted NATO countries already operating the system ^[3]. A source close to Perennial Autonomy, the company that makes Merops, confirmed significant interest across the flank ^[4].

Cost is what pulls the demand. Drone incursions on the flank have spiked in recent months, Western officials have repeatedly blamed Russia, and allies have often answered by scrambling fighter aircraft ^[14]. Business Insider describes sending crewed jets with expensive air-to-air missiles after cheap drones as less than ideal, and says NATO countries have been looking for cheaper methods ^[15]. A Merops interceptor costs $15,000 and can destroy a drone that costs twice as much ^[13], or roughly $30,000 ^[1]. The same account says the saving lets troops keep their high-end missiles for harder threats ^[13].

That last point bears on whether allies are moving away from expensive air defence. In my view the evidence supports a narrower claim: they are adding a cheaper layer to it. "There is no silver bullet" for drone defense, Lt. Col. Adam Scher, a spokesperson for the Pentagon's Joint Interagency Task Force 401, told Business Insider ^[17]. He said the task force and US allies and partners continue "to build a layered defense that requires the purchase of sensors, active and passive radars, cameras, as well as non-kinetic and kinetic effectors to ensure our warfighters have the best available technology to protect themselves from the threats caused by the illicit use of drones" ^[18]. The official said Eastern-flank allies are also buying other counter-drone systems, but did not say which ^[16].

The combat record helps explain the interest. Merops has downed thousands of Russian drones in Ukraine ^[8], and US troops in the Middle East have used it to destroy at least one Iranian drone ^[12]. Dan Driscoll, then Army secretary, said earlier this year that the Army had bought thousands of interceptors ^[11]. It is also simple to field. A small crew can be trained in days, and the interceptor can launch from the bed of a pickup truck ^[7].

The purchases so far have followed incursions. Poland and Romania bought and deployed Merops after Russian drones violated NATO airspace in September 2025 ^[9]. Lithuania said in April it planned to buy a test batch ^[10]. This quarter's choice for a flank ministry is whether to make that kind of trial purchase. Next quarter's consequence is a stocking question: how many $15,000 rounds to hold against incursions that keep coming ^[13][14], and which of the other layers Scher lists to fund alongside them ^[18]. The reporting does not include contract values, quantities or delivery dates for any of the six buyers ^[1].