Video purportedly shows a Ukrainian unit running down a Russian Shahed — the kind of kill the US is racing to reproduce

KYIV, Ukraine — A Ukrainian drone unit has posted a video reportedly showing American-made Merops interceptors running down an Iranian-designed Shahed drone, fresh proof the cheap weapon works as the U.S. Army moves to build a version it can field at scale.Ukraine’s 427th Separate Unmanned Systems Regiment, known as Rarog, posted the unverified night-vision clip to its Telegram channel last month showing an interceptor closing on a one-way attack drone and a flash at the moment of contact. The unit flies Ukrainian-built interceptors alongside foreign systems, and did not specify which it used.Foreign Policy Research Institute senior fellow Rob Lee shared the clip and called it the first public video he believed of Perennial Autonomy’s Merops, the American interceptor, “targeting Shahed/Geran one-way attack drones.”The footage lands as the Army is moving to build a version of that drone it can call its own.On June 23, the Army opened a Low-Cost Interceptor program at an industry day in Arlington, Virginia, seeking complete systems for under $1 million and government-owned designs it can hand to any manufacturer, with a first live-fire demonstration set for the fall.The program would let the Army break the interceptor into pieces, buy or lease the design, and use contract manufacturers to build it — so it owns the weapon rather than depending on a single prime, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said in May.The Army does not own the Merops design and cannot produce them at will. The new program would change that, letting it hand a government-owned blueprint to any manufacturer rather than buy from only a single contracting company.The vendor that the U.S government appears to be seeking independence from in this case is Perennial Autonomy, the maker of Merops.Former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt launched the defense startup in 2023 and signed a three-year, $500 million contract with the Pentagon in May — the largest single counter-drone deal it’s ever awarded — making