Recent long-range drone attacks by Ukraine and Israel deep inside Russia and Iran raise concerns about the vulnerability of the US homeland to similar threats, according to War on the Rocks. While these operations demonstrate that inexpensive drones can inflict significant damage, their success relied heavily on elite intelligence, logistical coordination, and lengthy preparation, making them difficult to replicate. The US must not underestimate the threat, however, and should bolster its defenses by improving counterintelligence, hardening key assets, enhancing interagency coordination, and learning both defensive and offensive lessons to prepare for future drone warfare scenarios. They write:

How vulnerable is the continental United States to drone attack? Could a wily adversary cause vast destruction of military assets on U.S. soil at a fraction of the cost it would take to replace them? Ukraine and Israel’s stunning drone attacks against high value targets deep within Russia and Iran, respectively, in June 2025 raise serious questions about whether the United States homeland will remain a sanctuary. America has long enjoyed the advantages of favorable geography. Aside from nuclear-armed missiles, the continental United States has largely remained out of reach of conventional kinetic attacks from major adversaries. […]

There is no question that Ukraine and Israel’s operations were breathtaking in scale and scope. They were also ingenious in design and execution. But that is precisely the point. Their sheer logistical complexity makes them less like increasingly precise intercontinental ballistic missiles and more akin to high-end cyber and intelligence operations. […]

The Pentagon should learn from these cases — not just defensively, but offensively. If conflict breaks out in the Taiwan Strait or South China Sea, the ability to launch precision, deep penetration attacks using small, expendable systems would be impactful. Just as it is critical to map the previously discussed vulnerabilities, it is equally critical to understand where adversaries are most vulnerable to these sorts of attacks and develop strategies to exploit them should conflict break out. As Bego notes, Ukraine’s operation against Russia “threaten[ed] to undermine a long-standing strategy of relying on its vast size and strategic depth to shield key military and industrial assets from within striking distance of any front-line on its western border.”

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