US Unveils Attack Squadron Using Reverse-Engineered Shahed Drones

By Al Ahed Staff, Agencies

The Pentagon has activated its first dedicated attack-drone squadron built around US-produced versions of Iran’s Shahed-136, the low-cost kamikaze drone used extensively by Russia in Ukraine.

US Central Command [CENTCOM] announced the new unit, Task Force Scorpion Strike, on 3 December, saying its mission is to rapidly field inexpensive and effective unmanned weapons for frontline forces.

CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper said the task force reflects a push toward faster military innovation and stronger deterrence. Its first system, the Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System [LUCAS]—reverse engineered from the Shahed-136—has already been deployed to the Middle East.

Photos released by CENTCOM show rows of LUCAS drones at an undisclosed location. Their design closely resembles the Iranian original, featuring a delta wing, rear propeller and vertical stabilizers.

While CENTCOM has not provided detailed specifications, it says the drones have long range, autonomous flight capability, and can be launched via catapult, rocket assist, or mobile vehicle systems. The manufacturer has not been identified, though the drones appear similar to the FLM-136 made by Arizona-based SpektreWorks.

The US Air Force earlier sought industry proposals for a Shahed-136 replica to use as a counter-UAS training target, but it is unclear whether that effort evolved into the offensive LUCAS program or if the Pentagon pursued it separately.

The deployment marks a key strategic shift: low-cost drones are no longer seen only as a defensive problem but as an offensive opportunity. The move aligns with War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s initiative to expand the military’s drone arsenal, calling such systems the most important battlefield innovation in a generation.

Iran’s Shahed drones are prized for being cheap—around $50,000 each—compared with US precision-strike weapons that cost hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. Russia has used large numbers of Shahed derivatives, such as the Geran-2 and Geran-3, to strike Ukrainian infrastructure, forcing Kiev to expend costly air-defense systems to shoot them down.

Recognizing this imbalance, the Pentagon has pressed US industry to deliver affordable cruise-missile-class weapons. Companies including L3Harris, Anduril, and Lockheed Martin are developing low-cost, high-volume systems, while both the US and Ukraine have adapted cheaper rockets like the APKWS for counter-drone missions.

With LUCAS now fielded and Scorpion Strike operational, the Pentagon appears to be moving decisively from defending against one-way attack drones to using them as offensive weapons of its own.