That logic right there is why the US is going to lose. That math only works in isolation

The Ukrainians don’t think about today’s tradeoff but also about tomorrows. They learned that when when a three day special operation turned into four years.

You have to match your best defenses against the best expected incoming attack- across time- even if it means taking a hit. Yes desalination plant included

The us doctrine of defend all the things all the time against everything has failed in light of modern drone warefare

The US already has “shoot the archer” doctrine which strategizes to target the site(s) launching cheap drones rather than the drones themselves. With US air superiority this seems feasible.