New Delhi, March 10 -- The conflict with Iran isn't an even fight. Still, Iran's drones are proving to be a difficult problem for the American military to solve.

The Shahed unmanned aerial vehicle is a car-sized kamikaze drone that costs tens of thousands of dollars and is used by Iranian forces. With a wingspan of about 8 feet, it can fly about 100 miles per hour, travelling about 1,000 miles to deliver, perhaps, a hundred pounds of explosive, capable of completely destroying a car or collapsing a small residential building.

It's a relatively simple, yet terrifying device. "The technology is kind of Radio Shack..cheap," says AeroDynamic Advisory managing director and aerospace consultant Richard Aboulafia.

Shahed-style drones are resp...