NPR.

This is the indicator from Planet Money.

I'm Adrian Ma.

And I'm Patty Hirsch.

Over the course of history, key advances in technology have made fundamental changes in the way human beings wage war.

The longbow, gunpowder, the airplane, the tank, the nuke.

And now, the drone. Drones that can fly

in swarms over hundreds of miles, sea drones that can attack targets underwater or on the surface,

and land drones that can move across terrain and hold positions for days, as long as they have

ammunition. Now, drones were around before the wars in Ukraine and Iran,

but those conflicts have driven the proliferation of drone technology and made a fundamental

change in the way we fight. Drones are now embedded in warfare. We've reported earlier this year

that combating small, cheap drones used by Iran has drained the U.S. military arsenal of expensive high-tech weapons systems.

So you'd think the U.S., being the world's biggest arms maker and exporter,

would be right on top of this, right?

Yeah, you would. You'd think our defense businesses would be dominating the development

and production of drones and the weapons we need to fight them.

But they're not.

And there are a lot of reasons for this.

On today's show, we're going to focus on just three. That's coming up after the break.

When it comes to making and selling weapons, the United States is the undisputed heavyweight

champion of the world.

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