Cheap Iranian drone downed $25M US Army helicopter–maybe by chance

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/06/cheap-iranian-drone-downed-25-million-us-army-helicopter-maybe-by-chance/

by rbanffy • 1 month ago

64 154 1 month ago

arstechnica.com

spiderfarmer3• 1 month ago

Not by chance. Why is the US Army helicopter flying in another sovereign country?

The USA is the Russia of the West nowadays.

spwa48• 1 month ago

I think they mean the Apache was there to shoot it down and managed to fly too close while blowing it up. On the plus side: blowing it up successfully. On the down side ... well that's why it's in the news.

This is why you don't used manned systems to hunt unmanned ones ...

tristanj33• 1 month ago

The helicopter in question was flying in Oman, in Omani territorial waters.

Why does Iran have the right to fire drones into other countries?

dmpk2k• 1 month ago

The same Oman Trump was recently threatening to blow up? Heh.

orwin2• 1 month ago

Because the US fired missiles from other countries? It's not a game of mounted tag.

wolvoleo3• 1 month ago

Why does Iran have the right to fire drones into other countries?

If America hadn't started bombing Iran in the first place this wouldn't have happened anyway. Things would have been peaceful and oil prices would have been fine.

surgical_fire4• 1 month ago

Gee, I wonder why?

Maybe because the Israel-US axis decided it was a good idea to start bombing them earlier this year? Could be that?

Perhaps, and this is a long shot, they see military equipment close to their border as a threat?

People get weird like that when countries start bombing their schoolgirls into minced meat.

Ekaros• 1 month ago

USA has been Russia/Soviet Union of West since WW2...

blitzar• 1 month ago

It was a defensive flight deploying defensive missiles and defensive bullets against offensive school children who were threatening other countries by being in their own country. Shooting back is an act of war that must be responded to.

(I would add that this is sarcasm, but it is reality for a lot of people sadly)

thiagoharry• 1 month ago

USA always did far worse things than Russia. Nothing new here.

grim_io• 1 month ago

Definitely not.

You don't seem to know about the wars Russia fought even in the last 30 years, and the ways they did.

inglor_cz13• 1 month ago

So, the US relearns all the lessons of the Russo-Ukrainian war the hard way? Choppers proved very vulnerable already in 2022.

History often repeats itself. In a similar way, Great Powers like France refused to study the lessons of the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5 because it was something that happened in barbarian lands far away from glorious Europe, so it was obviously irrelevant to them, right? And then the shock of industrial warfare almost shattered the French army in summer 1914.

tristanj33• 1 month ago

Absolutely incorrect. The attitude within the military industrial complex towards drone/UAVs has shifted enormously since the Russia/Ukraine conflict. However, procurement times on new equipment is on the order of several years to nearly a decade. There's not enough time to produce nor acquire this hardware.

The US military is sitting on decades of older equipment. The Ukraine conflict started four years ago. Complaining that the US has not overhauled its inventory in just four years is unreasonable and unrealistic.

sam_lowry_• 1 month ago

Well then they have to hurry up or loose the war ;-)

inglor_cz13• 1 month ago

"However, procurement times on new equipment is on the order of several years to nearly a decade."

Interesting that the Ukrainians can design, develop, produce and deploy a new type of a drone in something like 6 weeks.

Of course, they are in a life-or-death struggle and thus cannot afford a decade of paper wars with various lawyerly and MBA types who want to have their say.

That said, the US cannot afford those either, but it is under the illusion that it still can. Structural ossification at its best, and the result is ... inability to beat an impoverished, long sanctioned Middle-Eastern authoritarian regime into submission.

Planktonne5• 1 month ago

However, procurement times on new equipment is on the order of several years to nearly a decade. There's not enough time to produce nor acquire this hardware.

This has not seemed to be a problem for the countries using them; what makes the US so uniquely inefficient?

adjejmxbdjdn3• 1 month ago

Trump class warships and plans for more aircraft carriers suggest otherwise.

Kampfschnitzel• 1 month ago

I am far from a US supporter, but just because a single Apache was downed, doesn't mean the US isnt adapting to the new kind of warfare we've seen from Ukraine. Also Iran =/= Ukraine.

Furthermore, Choppers arent obsolete and if you got em, it makes sense go use them.

Currently it's hard for any nation to meaningfully adapt, as the new tech develops far faster than any governement procurment process.

inglor_cz13• 1 month ago

I haven't claimed that choppers are obsolete. I have said that they are vulnerable, and they indeed are.

Both UA and RU still operate helicopters, but their survival envelope has tightened drastically and they won't even try to fly a chopper over a wide body of water anywhere near the enemy. To survive in a drone-infested war theatre, a chopper must fly really low and mask itself using terrain features as much as possible.

enoint• 1 month ago

The French 75 was the best mobile gun in Europe. They entered the war expecting to be mobile and were the first to use poison gas. Compared to the Imperial Russian Navy? I don’t see it. The most dramatic lesson was that Japan prefers surprise attacks.

inglor_cz13• 1 month ago

The most important lessons of the Russo-Ukrainian war weren't the naval ones. The siege of Port Arthur was an almost perfect pre-image of future trench warfare in WWI.

yanhangyhy• 1 month ago

Is DronesPunk a thing yet?

nehal3m3• 1 month ago

Don't those Shaheds run on nVidia Jetson? Jensen cashing in again. Funny that most of the hardware in those drones is designed in the US. Stop hitting yourself.

toxicunderGroov• 1 month ago

Local wood frames, carbon from Japan, hardware designed in the USA, produced in China with Nvidia soft. It's kind of funny if it wasn't so wasteful on global resources.

nozzlegear• 1 month ago

The ghost of Milton Friedman is preparing his "pencil" speech as we speak!

SR2Z2• 1 month ago

I don't know why you think that Russia is able to get GPUs when the entire rest of the world can't.

The drones run on literally whatever is available because any Western-built one is restricted to Iran or Russia.

nehal3m3• 1 month ago

Because they're on Amazon for like 350 bucks.

tencentshill• 1 month ago

US export controls are terrible. It's how they got all of their Ubiquiti gear.

https://hntrbrk.com/ubiquiti/

spwa48• 1 month ago

No, they don't. In fact nvidia is one of the few that's NOT involved. It's definitely a group effort: https://militarnyi.com/en/news/czech-engine-and-western-elec...

    Component / part                     Company                 Company country                            Public factory / manufacturing-origin info
 

    TJ150 turbojet engine                PBS Velka Bites          Czechia                    EU                    Czechia; manufacturer is PBS Velka Bites
    TW1721 GNSS antennas, block of 4     Calian / Tallysman       Canada                     Canada / West         Ottawa, Canada manufacturing publicly stated by Calian/Tallysman
    AD9361BBCZ RF transceiver            Analog Devices           USA                        USA                   COO/assembly: South Korea; wafer diffusion: Taiwan
    MIMXRT1052 microcontroller           NXP USA / NXP            USA / Netherlands          West                  Distributor COO often China; NXP PCN references SMIC8 40nm wafer fab
    N63A0QI chip                         Intel                    USA                        USA                   Exact COO not found publicly
    STM32F405 microcontroller units      STMicroelectronics       Switzerland / France / Italy Europe / Switzerland Probably Manufactured in China 
    ADIS16480 inertial measurement unit  Analog Devices           USA                        USA                   COO: Philippines; ADI PCN adds IMI Philippines as approved assembly site
    TMS320F28335PGFA microcontroller     Texas Instruments        USA                        USA                   COO/assembly: Philippines; wafer diffusion: Japan

I found some details on an "AI version" of this drone, using Rockchip chips.

genxy2• 1 month ago

All of that stuff minus the turbojet is like water. It is everywhere. No supply chain control is going to stop it. Not only are these specific parts ubiquitous, but they have set the standard in the industry, so there are numerous compatible and competing parts that could easily substitute.

dzonga• 1 month ago

so most of the components of the so called cheap drone are western :(.

tragedy.

xvxvx• 1 month ago

Jokes on them: the US has an infinite supply of $25M thanks to its servant population.

SideburnsOfDoom• 1 month ago

More or less, but "You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time." And also that the sticker price is a good indication of how easy it is to get an new one quickly.

The side with $25M helicopters and $4m patriot missiles is at a big disadvantage to the side with $40K shaheeds here. Attrition favours the latter side. Assuming that both sides have stockpiles, the latter side will have more items in the stockpile, and will replenish it sooner. What happens when the air defences run out?

conartist63• 1 month ago

I just want to confirm that people don't think hitting civilian drinking water as retaliation for a military helicopter is normal or ok

roshin• 1 month ago

people might not like it if it was targeted, but if it got slightly damaged (and currently functional) as collateral damage to a military target, I assume more people would be okay

conartist63• 1 month ago

If it was targeted, my understanding is that that action would fit the technical definition of a war crime

Planktonne5• 1 month ago

The countries currently bombing Iran have boasted for years of their precision targeting systems. They've also made countless statements that show a willingness to targets civilians and infrastructure [1].

At this point, every direct hit on a school or a water source or a charity being accidental collateral damage just doesn't ring true.

Either they've been lying about capabilities (and all the precision strikes were undergone with reckless disregard for human life) or they have the capabilities claimed and are doing exactly what they said they would.

[1] One famous example: https://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/02/politics/donald-trump-ter...

belorn• 1 month ago

There should be two rules in wars. Do not hit civilian infrastructure, and do not put military infrastructure near civilian infrastructure. Both should be a war crime, both during and outside of wars.

Military infrastructure should also not be dependent on civilian infrastructure as that blur the line between military and civilian.

It is an open question what media and thus we the public should do when nations ignore this. If a nation put military surveillance equipment onto fishing boats, like the Russian shadow fleet did, with some military personal onboard that operate the equipment, does that make the civilian fishermen also military personal, or should the military equipment and personal be treated as civilian since they are in a technically civilian ship?

I don't think the question we should ask is if people think hitting civilian drinking water as retaliation for a military helicopter is ok. It is obviously not ok and framing it like that only normalize the idea that hitting civilian targets could ever be acceptable. The only question we should be looking at is if the civilian infrastructure and military infrastructure was intentional built close to each other, thus making this two war crimes.

tristanj33• 1 month ago

Your argument is poorly thought out.

All civilian infrastructure is dual-use. Militaries will use civilian roads, highways, bridges, and airports when necessary. Militaries use civilian water facilities, buy fuel at civilian petrol stations, and power military equipment using the civilian electrical grid. Militaries frequently commandeer civilian infrastructure when necessary. Without providing a clear definition of what is civilian infrastructure and what is military infrastructure, all civilian infrastructure can be considered military infrastructure.

wolvoleo3• 1 month ago

An Apache only costs ,$25M? I thought it was a lot more.

Bender• 1 month ago

"In 1986, the incremental or flyaway cost for the AH-64A was $7M and the average unit cost was approximately $13.9M based on total costs." [1]

"A new AH-64E has a base flyaway cost of $35 million to $50 million, but international packages often exceed $100 million." [2]

So probably slightly older models.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_AH-64_Apache

[2] https://www.wionews.com/photos/apache-helicopter-cost-vs-pow...

panny• 1 month ago

maybe by chance.

Big sky theory says otherwise.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_sky_theory

hnbad2• 1 month ago

The article also states that Iran shot down the fighter jet the US had to recover the weapons officer of. I recall news reports at the time insisting that this was actually an accident or friendly fire incident as it had been the previous time they lost an aircraft within the Iranian sphere of influence.

Given the US government's spiraling disregard for factuality, it's safe to assume any loss of equipment or personell in the area of operations is hostile, not accidental.

juliusceasar• 1 month ago

2nd Epstein War, why? BECAUSE Israel controls the US presidents.

adjejmxbdjdn3• 1 month ago

Ah yes, that’s why Obama worked hard for years to negotiate and sign the JCPOA against Netanyahu’s wishes.

It’s much more factual and useful to point out that Trump is remarkably easily influenced and Netanyahu was able to remarkably easily influence him.

fuckinpuppers• 1 month ago

Just you wait! The Trump-class battleships are going to roll in to conflicts and ………….. totally get messed up by cheap drone swarms

Maybe don’t have the buffoon who thinks he knows everything drive those kind of decisions

Cheap Iranian drone downed $25M US Army helicopter–maybe by chance

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