When he was defense secretary, Robert M. Gates railed against weapons that did too much and cost too much throughout his time in two presidential administrations.
He denounced weapons that offered a “99 percent solution” but took years to build, and called for a new generation of arms that were “75 percent solutions” but could be produced more cheaply in months.
Almost two decades later, little has changed. Patriot interceptor missiles can take up to 36 months and $4 million to build. So far in the Iran war, the U.S. military has fired more than 1,200 of them. Some were used to shoot down $35,000 Shahed drones, which Iran can churn out at a rate of at least 200 a month.
