Odd Lots · Friday, September 4, 2026
Wayne Sanders emphasized the necessity of a layered air defense strategy, highlighting that while directed energy weapons offer a low cost-per-shot advantage against threats like drones, they are not a replacement for high-cost 'exquisite' interceptor missiles. These advanced missiles are crucial for countering high-speed threats such as hypersonic weapons, ensuring comprehensive defense against a range of adversaries.
“You have to remain, you have to have exquisite missiles. You have to have your Lockheed PAC-3 interceptors. You have to have your RTX SM-3s and SM-6s. You cannot get rid of those because you have adversaries who have hypersonic weapons.”
“So what you're really looking for is there's layered air defense, right? I referred to it earlier as integrated air and missile defense. And this is where it's really important because it's super relevant to what we're talking about right now, especially when you look at investment as well.”
“So if you're being shot at, if a drone swarm is coming at you and the Shaheed-136 is out of Iran, you don't need to shoot it down with the PAK-3 interceptor. You may be looking for that vampire APK-BWS partnership. You may want to use some of these Coyote Block IIs.”