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In World War II, the British discovered something disconcerting when analyzing the German bombings on its industrial cities: many times it was not necessary to completely destroy a refinery or factory to paralyze it for weeks. It was enough to hit some few vulnerable points to cause fires, disruptions and a disproportionate economic effect. Eight decades later, that same logic once again dominates another war, only now the weapon that attempts to find those weak points fits in an operator’s backpack and costs a fraction of an anti-aircraft missile. Dubai is located in Ukraine. For years, the United Arab Emirates built its security around a very specific idea: cutting-edge technology, advanced anti-aircraft systems and one of the most sophisticated defensive architectures in the Middle East were enough to protect the country’s energy heart. The war with Iran has begun dismantle that trust. After enduring hundreds of missiles and more than 2,200 Iranian drones, Dubai and Abu Dhabi have reached an uncomfortable conclusion that Russia learned before in Ukraine: in the face of cheap, numerous and persistent drones, it is sometimes more effective to raise huge metal structures over oil deposits than spending multimillion-dollar interceptors trying to destroy every threat in the air. The images that appeared near Dubai International Airport show precisely that: those gigantic “cope cages” surrounding fuel tanks, a scene that until recently seemed exclusive to Russian refineries attacked by Ukrainian drones, or in the films of George Miller. The cheap drone war. The problem facing the Emirates has less to do with the individual sophistication of each drone than with the economic logic of the conflict. Iran has demonstrated that it can launch massive waves of Shahed-136-type UAVs and other relatively cheap attack munitions against extremely expensive infrastructure and difficult to replace. Even when air defenses work, the economic drain It’s starting to be absurd: Shooting down low-cost drones using advanced interceptor missiles turns defense into a financially unsustainable battle. That’s where these appear giant metal cages. They are not designed to stop ballistic missiles or complex attacks, but to create a physical separation that reduces the damage of suicide drones or improvised munitions before reaching fuel depots, pipelines or critical facilities. A brutally simple solution, and precisely for this reason it is beginning to spread. Russia led the way. Because what the Emirates is doing now has been going on for years. happening in Russia. Since Ukraine began hitting refineries, oil depots and military bases with long-range drones, Moscow began to cover facilities strategic with nets, metal mesh and improvised structures. What was initially derided as a desperate solution ended up evolving in a defensive system relatively common around vulnerable assets. The logic is simple: an FPV drone or a Shahed does not need to completely destroy a facility to cause a huge problem, it is enough a precise impact on a tank, a pipe or a critical point to cause fires, interruptions and million-dollar costs. The Emirates, despite having practically unlimited resources compared to Russia, is discovering exactly the same structural vulnerability. The difference is that now these cages appear next to the most futuristic skyscrapers and financial centers in the Gulf. Oil as a strategic objective. Iran has focused a good part of its attacks precisely on the Emirati energy heart. Facilities such as the Fujairah oil port or the Habshan gas plant have suffered damage that will take months to fully repair. That explains why the country has accelerated visible defensive measures even after the partial ceasefire between Washington and Tehran. Because the threat has not disappeared. In fact, one of the most disturbing aspects of the conflict is that the attacks continued even after the truce announcements, reinforcing the feeling that any critical infrastructure can become a target again with very little notice. In this context, protecting refineries and warehouses no longer depends only on radars or anti-missile batteries, it also implies physically harden facilities, assume partial impacts and prevent a relatively cheap drone from causing a national energy disaster. The Pentagon changes its mentality. The expansion of these improvised defenses also reflects a broader doctrinal shift within of the US military itself. For years, many officials in Washington considered inefficient invest large amounts of money in physically shielding bases, hangars or critical facilities from cheap drones. Ukraine, Russia and now the Middle East are completely changing that perception. Shortly before the war between Iran and the United States broke out, the Pentagon published new guidelines precisely recommending networks, cables and other passive physical defenses to protect strategic infrastructures. The reasoning is beginning to be difficult to ignore: in an era of massive and cheap dronesthe survival of multi-million dollar facilities may depend less on futuristic systems and more on simple, ugly and gigantic industrial solutions. Dubai, probably one of the most recognizable symbols of global technological modernity, has just assumed exactly that reality. Image | x In Xataka | Every time the US takes stock of Iran’s arsenal and capabilities, it realizes something: it has destroyed very little. 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