The UAE confirmed that its AH-64 Apaches and F-16s are actively flying within the counter-drone function, tackling Iranian drones earlier than they’ll attain their targets.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) launched on Mar. 8, 2026, a video displaying footage from an electro-optical system of eight Iranian Shahed-type One-Manner Assault (OWA) drones being shot down. Based mostly on the sound of the sometimes sluggish fee of fireside, acknowledgements of “goal destroyed” by one of many crew and airborne place of the partaking platform, we’ve got concluded these are AH-64 Apache assault helicopters using their chin-mounted M230 30 mm chain gun.
Nonetheless, on Mar. 9, the UAE MoD additionally introduced the passing of “two members of the Armed Forces following a helicopter crash resulting from a technical malfunction whereas performing their nationwide responsibility.” There have been little particulars on the time of writing.
The UAE Ministry of Defence publicizes the martyrdom of two members of the Armed Forces following a helicopter crash resulting from a technical malfunction whereas performing their nationwide responsibility within the nation at this time, Monday, March 9, 2026.
The Ministry of Defence extends its deepest… pic.twitter.com/DD1UbISK6i
— وزارة الدفاع |MOD UAE (@modgovae) March 9, 2026
The video launched by the UAE confirms the primary large-scale operational use of the Apache within the anti-drone function. The helicopter is being actively used among the many number of belongings working collectively to counter the drone risk posed by Iran.
Israel has been the primary to make use of the AH-64 on this function, with a number of cases recorded, such because the one in November 2024 when the Apache’s M230 was used to shoot down Hezbollah drones. The U.S. is equally reorienting its personal AH-64s to be employed within the counter-UAS function, whereas additionally introducing programmable proximity fuzed 30 mm XM1225 rounds.
Moreover, one other video additionally appeared on Mar. 9 displaying a UAE F-16E/F Block 60 flying overhead and firing an AIM-9 Sidewinder short-range air-to-air missile (AAM) to interact an Iranian drone. The video exhibits the jet in a stage flight, flying sluggish at very low altitude to comply with and have interaction what seems to be a Shahed-type OWA.
You might be on the seashore within the UAE and see a Shahed-136 flying overhead, and later a UAEAF F-16 firing a Sidewinder to shoot down the drone. That’s how loopy the struggle within the Gulf area is these days. pic.twitter.com/w3uCtpdLnz
— The Aviationist (@TheAviationist) March 9, 2026
This comes as Emirati, Qatari and Kuwaiti army authorities reported that they detected and shot down a number of ballistic missiles and drones launched from Iran on Mar. 8 and 9. The UAE on Monday shot down 12 of the 15 ballistic missiles detected, with three falling into the ocean, and intercepted 17 of the 18 UAVs, including that one “fell throughout the nation’s territory.”
AH-64s shoot down Iranian drones
The infrared footage from the Emirati Apaches’ AN/ASQ-170 Modernized Goal Acquisition and Designation Sight (M-TADS) and AN/AAR-11 Modernized Pilot Evening Imaginative and prescient Sensors (PNVS) present that each one the Shahed drones had been propeller-driven, with their two-cylinder turboprop engines seen. The M230 weapons are clearly heard firing, and the drones both explode mid-air or disintegrate earlier than crashing.
The UAE MoD’s put up on X described the engagement: “Footage displaying the UAE’s air defences intercepting and destroying Iranian UAVs that tried to focus on the nation. There is no such thing as a compromise with regards to the nation’s safety and sovereignty. The UAE Armed Forces stand prepared to discourage any risk.”
The UAE’s Joint Air Command presently operates a complete of 30 AH-64 Apaches, in accordance with the 2026 World Air Forces report, that had been bought within the older ‘A’ variant between 1991 and 1994. These had been later upgraded to the AH-64D Longbow Block II normal by 2010 by means of remanufacture and modernization.
In December 2016, the Protection Safety Cooperation Company (DSCA) permitted a International Navy Sale (FMS) to remanufacture 28 Apaches to the AH-64E variant and procure 9 newly constructed AH-64Es. The nation obtained the primary E-model in August 2023. Thus its future fleet is about to comprise 39 Apache assault helicopters.
Iranian drone and missile assaults proceed
Because the begin of the Iranian assaults, the UAE says it detected 253 ballistic missiles, destroying 233 of them, with 18 hitting the ocean and two touchdown contained in the nation. It additionally detected a complete of 1,440 Iranian UAVs, taking pictures down 1,359 with 81 touchdown in its territory. The variety of cruise missiles “detected and destroyed” stands at eight.
الدفاعات الجوية الإماراتية تتصدى بنجاح للصواريخ الباليستية والجوالة والمسيرات الإيرانية.
UAE Air Defences Efficiently InterceptIranian Ballistic and Cruise Missiles and UAVs Assaults#وزارة_الدفاع #وزارة_الدفاع_الإماراتية#MOD#UAEMinistryOfDefence pic.twitter.com/YM4PbmNydg
— وزارة الدفاع |MOD UAE (@modgovae) March 9, 2026
Qatar’s MoD in the meantime mentioned that, by the afternoon of Mar. 9, it was attacked by 17 ballistic missiles and 6 drones coming from Iran, all of which had been shot down. The Kuwaiti MoD’s spokesperson Col. Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi mentioned that on Mar. 8 they destroyed three out of seven ballistic missiles, with 4 being ignored as “they had been exterior the risk vary and posed no hazard.” Air defenses in the meantime destroyed two out of 5 “hostile drones,” whereas three had been “not destroyed.”
“This resulted in two drones focusing on the neighborhood of Kuwait Worldwide Airport, resulting in the explosion of gas tanks. One other drone focused the constructing of the Public Establishment for Social Safety in Kuwait Metropolis, leading to materials injury,” additional added the assertion.
🇮🇷🇮🇱🇰🇼🇺🇸 New footage of Artesh (not IRGC) Arash strike drone launches, which had been reportedly used to assault targets in Israel and Kuwait (particularly American forces in Kuwait). The speaker within the video declares that this salvo is in retaliation for the sinking of the IRIS Dena. pic.twitter.com/sshyEQnnOv
— Shahryar Pasandideh (@shahpas) March 9, 2026
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) too on Mar. 9 talked about missiles being launched in direction of the nation from Iran, saying protection programs had been working to intercept them. Official Iranian footage posted by analyst Shahryar Pasandideh on Mar. 7, Mar. 8 and Mar. 9 additionally confirmed Iran launching the Arash/Arash-2 OWA drone. The drone is operated by its common army and never the separate Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Saudi F-15s, Eurofighters shoot down Iranian targets
On Mar. 8, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s MoD launched a video of Shahed-type drones being introduced down by what might be concluded to be F-15s and Eurofighter Typhoons. The plane may have used AIM-9 Sidewinders and Superior Quick-Vary Air-to-Air Missiles (ASRAAM) for the engagements.
Footage exhibits Saudi air defenses intercepting and destroying various drones launched towards the Kingdom in latest days.#SaudiMOD pic.twitter.com/G41HjOsm1H
— وزارة الدفاع (@modgovksa) March 8, 2026
With the UAE’s F-16E/F Block 60 equally utilizing an AIM-9 SRAAM to deliver down the Shahed drone, these movies present that the asymmetry nonetheless largely persists in tackling OWA projectiles, provided that that partaking plane are multi-million greenback aerial platforms and have to make use of weapons that price greater than the drone they should shoot down.
Solely Ukraine has largely managed to deliver the price of partaking Russian Geran drones, utilizing a mixture of digital warfare, ground-based anti-aircraft weapons, Sting interceptor drones, and typically door weapons on army utility helicopters. It now presumably prices Ukraine the identical to interact a Russian OWA drone, if not decrease, than it takes Russia to launch it.
Industrial capability to maintain churning out drones additionally decides the price right here, given the large manufacturing facility in Russia’s Alabuga and Iran’s unidentified manufacturing websites and underground storage bases.
Three U.S.-made “Patriot” missiles fail to intercept a single Iranian missile over Qatar.
What number of billions of Arab oil cash and American taxpayer {dollars} had been spent on this rubbish ?! pic.twitter.com/ulnqhHJxwD
— Iran Navy Monitor ☫ (@IRIran_Military) February 28, 2026
Within the West Asian state of affairs, the price asymmetry with reference to manufacturing is much more acute, provided that the Saudi and Emirati F-15, Hurricane, F-16 and Apaches are direct imports, and never manufactured in these international locations. Any future upgrades, replenishments or further buys can be topic to diplomatic, logistical and industrial hurdles.
