Before the explosion came the buzz. An aerial vehicle dove from a cloudless sky toward its target at Camp Buehring, a US military base in Kuwait. It crashed near the running track with a fiery plume of black smoke.
“Oh s—t,” said the man recording from the base. “Oh my God. Oh, it was right here. They’re getting… They’re starting to dial our building.”
The video ends as smoke billows over the desert outpost.
Footage of the attack, posted online on March 1 but possibly filmed earlier, is one of more than 30 open-source videos and satellite images showing Iranian drone strikes and interdictions by the US and its allies in seven countries. Obvious targets include military bases, transportation hubs, energy infrastructure and diplomatic centers. In 21 of the 26 videos, drones appear to reach their targets.
Videos posted on various online platforms reveal a pattern of inadequate defenses for strategic locations targeted by drones since the beginning of the war. As the US and Israel bombard Iran with the aim of crippling its nuclear, ballistic and drone capabilities, Iran retaliates by using its missile arsenal and cheap explosive drones.
Drones are a new challenge for the US, its allies and countries caught in the crossfire. Opponents are watching America’s response closely.
The weapon’s versatility allows Iran to extend the war by depleting enemy resources, an attractive strategy for cash-strapped states, experts say. Iran pioneered the technology, which it sold to Russia after a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It challenged the economics of war. While the US remains steadfast in its air supremacy, Iran’s drone campaign has forced targeted countries to use expensive munitions for deterrence.
“This is the ultimate symbol of asymmetric warfare,” said Joe Dyke, director of AirWars Programs, a nonprofit that tracks civilian casualties in conflict zones.
While drones can be shot down by a range of weapons, including heavy machine guns, fighter jets and advanced interceptors, they can destroy air defenses and even one such aircraft can cause lethal damage.
A drone attack on the civilian port of Shuaiba in Kuwait kills six US soldiers. Video reviewed by NBC News shows others blowing up oil infrastructure and logistics hubs. Some drones hit US consulates and embassies across the Gulf states, filming passersby gasping and sniffling. An oil storage facility in Oman has been hit twice: once last week and again this week, underscoring the ongoing vulnerability of critical targets.
The US does not release data on the munitions it intercepts or encounters. Data from the United Arab Emirates, which has been most affected by Iranian strikes, says that as of March 10, 1,475 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) had been flown over the country and 1,385 intercepted.
One of the Gulf nations, the UAE, reported six deaths and 122 injuries as of March 11 as a result of the clashes. Israel reported 13 deaths. In Iran, more than 1,200 people have been killed in US-Israeli attacks, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society.
The most frequently deployed drone by Iran is the Shahed-136, according to the weapons tracking project Open Source Munitions Portal (OSMP). With a wingspan of 11.5 feet, it is capable of flying about 1,200 miles and capable of carrying 110-pound warheads guided by a satellite navigation system, OSMP says. Drones are pre-programmed to fly to a specific target and operate without any pilot.
In the early days of the war, General Dan Kane, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, “The threat from one-way attack UAVs remains constant.”
Since then, the US has released video of drone interceptions and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a briefing on Friday that the number of drone strikes had decreased.
“CENTCOM continues to attack ballistic missile and drone capabilities so that they no longer pose a threat to us, our forces, our bases or our partners,” Kaine said at the same briefing.
The US is one of 10 countries to formally request assistance from Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on social media, adding that Ukraine had sent three teams to the Middle East.
The Trump administration’s official question came six days after the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran, according to Zelensky’s post on social media at the time, even though Ukraine had offered it months earlier. Ukraine has nearly four years of experience dealing with the weapon, gaining at the cost of destroying infrastructure and losing civilian lives as it pleads for air defense.
“Ukraine can contribute to stabilization,” Zelensky said Friday at a news conference in France.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi apologized for some of the attacks. In an interview with Al Jazeera, he indicated that some of the strikes were not coming directly from the country’s high command.
“Our military units are now, in fact, independent and somewhat separate, and they are operating on the basis of general instructions given to them in advance,” he said.
In other interviews, Araghchi said Iran was preparing for this war and a possible ground invasion by US forces.
This is the first Shahed sighting of 2019, according to OSMP. It gained popularity when Russia bought the technology from Iran in November 2022, and has since improved on the Shahed-136 model.
An NBC News analysis of online video of Shahed-type attacks shows that most of them hit along the Persian Gulf coast. Depending on the deployment of detection radar in the Gulf, drones may become more difficult to detect as they approach the coast, said Kelly Greco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank. This may hint at Iran’s larger plan.
“This second week, the goal set is very similar, and they’re re-attacking things,” Grieco said. “There is a real coherence to his strategy.”
In one video, a drone follows its pre-programmed route to an oil storage tank in Oman, marking the second attack on the facility.
Dubai beachgoers shot another video of a drone flying inland followed by a fighter jet booming, then releasing an interceptor missile.
Drones have reached Azerbaijan, verified videos show, bombing Nakhchivan’s airport. Azerbaijan is not a party to the conflict and demanded an apology from Iran, which denied responsibility.
Attacks by primitive drones and more sophisticated ballistic missiles have crippled both air and sea traffic in the critical oil-rich region. The strategically critical Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed to traffic. Air travel in the Persian Gulf region has been the most affected, according to data from global tracking service FlightRadar24. Kuwait and Bahrain airports are completely closed to commercial flights and other areas face heavy restrictions.
The size and production capabilities of Iran’s drone arsenal are unclear. The interception numbers released by the UAE indicate a decline in attacks, but that could be an indication of regrouping and stockpiling before the next attack rather than a supply dwindling, said the Stimson Center’s Grieco. Russia, the only country to regularly use this type of weapon, often breaks between major bombing raids to gather more drones to launch in a single attack.
