Yes because if you saturate the airspace & keep trying, eventually drones will get through & when we're talking about oil refineries, all it takes is one hit. In the last few weeks & days especially, Ukraine has launched dozens of drones, including Mugin-5s & unmanned speed boats rigged with explosives at Sevastopol. The Russians have shot down something like 90%, but the one got through. The oil refinery was right on the coast as well, so it was an easy target.
That $5000, plus shipping + handling, exchange rates, export fees, etc will end up costing perhaps even up to double. Believe me I used to import electronic components from China, the shipping & other expenses can easily double the cost of the item and today shipping from China is much more expensive than previously.
But even at $10,000, Iran is likely producing one Shahed for less. Most of these Mugin-5s get shot down but eventually one will get through.
Ballistic missiles are for higher priority targets. Iran's Shahed drones, at their extremely low price point can even be used to deplete air defense missiles. Think about it, each Patriot missile costs $3 million a piece. Each Nasam $300,000 - $1 million depending. Sure Gepards are effective but you have to deploy a large quantity of them & they can't be everywhere at once, it's impossible, not to mention the fact that they can be jammed as well. Manpads even, NATO variants still cost $80,000 or more average ? So Shaheds are extremely cost effective even at $20,000 each. I'm guessing Iran's cost is $5000-$10,000 realistically.
I hear that the Russians are using Shahed drones to deplete Ukraine's air defense missiles. Ukraine allegedly has no access to more S-300 missiles. So what Russia does is launch Shahed drones to hit various targets. If they get there great and hit the target great. If they're shot down, they not only deplete Ukraine's limited stockpile for pennies on the dollar, but they allow Russia to identify where Ukrainian air defenses are stationed. That's when Russia sends cruise/ballistic missiles or as we saw 2 days ago Lancets, which Ukraine's older S-300s seem to have trouble picking up. The Gepard was supposed to protect S-300s from Lancets but we all saw how that ended.
Ukraine sent their air defense systems closer to the front to give cover to their troops who crossed the Dnieper & setup base on the islands between the Russian & Ukranian controlled mainland. The problem is that these islands are what is referred to as wetlands, marshes. Extremely muddy, lots of vegetation & during high tide the entire area can flood, not to mention you can't dig trenches because a few feet below there's water. I don't know what the Ukrainians were thinking but their tanks & armored vehicles got stuck & Russia drooped several FAB-500 gliding bomb on them. It's not going too well.
It's hard to believe how arrogant & cocky Ukrainians have become
