(NEW YORK) — Saturday’s attack against Iran was the Pentagon’s first use of one-way drones in combat, CENTCOM said, and only about three months since its first notable test in the field — a rapid turnaround for a weapon system in the United States’ arsenal.
The use of one-way drones comes as military planners have been rapidly building up a squadron in the Middle East of Low-Cost Unmanned Combat Attack System, or LUCAS, a one-way attack drone produced by Arizona-based SpektreWorks.
Each unit costs about $35,000 — much cheaper than a $30 million Reaper drone and subsequent munitions.
The drones are brand new, being deployed to the Middle East in December and having their first test flight from a Navy ship that month.
The American drone was reverse-engineered from Iran’s Shahed drones that have been used by Iran against Israel and by Russia against Ukraine.
The new drones are part of CENTCOM’s Task Force Scorpion Strike, which was founded shortly after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed acceleration of the acquisition and deployment of cheap drone technology last summer.
LUCAS drones are designed to operate autonomously, according to CENTCOM. They can be launched with different mechanisms to include catapults, rocket-assisted takeoff, and ground and vehicle systems.
“Autonomous” doesn’t always refer to technology that doesn’t require humans for a designate a target, just that it doesn’t necessarily require human involvement after a target is selected, according to Pentagon policy.
One-way attack drones became notable in the war in Ukraine and spurred enormous investment into the technology from the Pentagon as a significantly cheaper option with relative ease of use compared to other weapons and aircraft.
“The first hours of the operation included precision munitions launched from air, land, and sea,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
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