We are hearing a lot about the Shahed 136, a cheap drone designed by Iran and copied by Russia (and recently the US) that is causing a lot of damage. It is basically a small unmanned plane that carries an explosive charge and makes oneway trips to the target where it crashes, kamikaze style. Some models have a significant range, like maybe 1200 miles.
Cost estimates of the Shahed 136 range from $20k to $50k, the price of a cheap car. By comparison cruise missiles and ballistic missiles start around $1 million each. It flies low and slow and should be easy to hit, except the missiles which can hit it cost much more than the Shahed. The idea is to fire many at once, so a few will get through to the target and knocking down the rest will cost your enemy millions he may not have.
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I think the ideal weapon to knock them down is a modern day version of a World War II fighter with machine guns, whose ammo is truly cheap by comparison. Such a fighter cannot survive in 21st century contested airspace but shooting down drones mostly happens over one's own territory where high tech enemies aren't so prevalent and enemy AA fire non-existent.
Directed by ground-based radar, drones like the Shahed should be easy targets for quick, gun-slinging prop planes or maybe the A-10. These can loiter awaiting the arrival of drones, and pounce on them, no dog-fighting required.
RAF fighter pilots had some success shooting down V-1 flying bombs in the latter stages of World War II. They were a similar target but faster. The V-1 was the world's first mass-produced jet powered aircraft.
