Modern conflicts are changing faster than ever before. While a few years ago, expensive missiles and precision-guided bombs dominated, today, cheap suicide drones are taking on an increasingly important role.
Most recently, the United States also joined this trend. US headquarters CENTCOM confirmed that the army used long-range kamikaze LUCAS drones in combat for the first time. It is interesting that their basic construction based on the Iranian drone Shahed-136, which became famous for attacks in Ukraine and the Middle East.
In practice, a special situation arose, the American army used a weapon inspired by Iranian design against Iran itself, reports The War Zone.
Operation Epic Fury
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The deployment of the drones took place as part of Operation Epic Furywhich the US carried out together with Israel against targets on the territory of Iran.
The drones were launched by the unit Task Force Scorpion Strikewhich the US military created in late 2025. Its role was to respond to the growing use of low-cost attack drones in the region.
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CENTCOM’s Task Force Scorpion Strike – for the first time in history – is using one-way attack drones in combat during Operation Epic Fury. These low-cost drones, modeled after Iran’s Shahed drones, are now delivering American-made retribution. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/VYdjiECKDT
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) February 28, 2026
The biggest advantage of these drones lies in the price. One LUCAS drone costs approximately 30,000 euros. Compared to traditional weapons, this is a very cheap system, which the American command openly admitted.
“At around $35,000, this is a low-cost, scalable weapon that provides capabilities similar to traditional systems at a fraction of the cost,” says US Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins.
The comparison with the defense is interesting. To shoot down a similar drone missiles of air defense systems, such as Patriot, are often used.
The price of one such rocket is approx from approximately 2 to 3.5 million euros.
This means that even if the defender destroys the drone, he may lose economically. The attacker loses a weapon worth several tens of thousands of dollars, while the defender spends a racket worth millions.
It is this disparity withbehind the popularity of similar weapons.
The American version has several technological goodies
Although LUCAS looks similar to Shahed-136, its internal technology is different.
„Bravo Zulu. U.S. Navy forces in the Middle East are advancing warfighting capability in new ways, bringing more striking power from the sea and setting conditions for using innovation as a deterrent.“ – Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM Commander pic.twitter.com/WUiAVojTht
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) December 18, 2025
Iranian drones are known for a relatively simple navigation system. They mostly fly along a pre-programmed route to a static destination.
At the same time, these machines are quite noisy. The sound of their engines is described by many like the engine of a lawnmower or an old moped.
The American version does not have detailed specifications, but there is a high chance that it will probably has more modern equipment.
According to available information, LUCAS can change route in flight, avoid air defenses and react to new targets. In some cases, it can use satellite communication, for example through Starlink terminals.
Such a system makes it possible dynamic attack control and hitting even moving targetsfor example mobile rocket launchers.
LUCAS is an ideal tool for swarm attacks
Another advantage of the system lies in the ability to coordinate multiple drones. Designers have designed LUCAS to be able to cooperate with other drones in swarm tactics.
In such an attack, a larger number of machines fly to the target at the same time. Defense systems then musia to react to dozens of targets simultaneously, which significantly increases the chance that at least some drones will penetrate the target.
Available information indicates that the weapon was created by reverse engineering, that is, the army acquired one of the Shahed-136 dronesshe took it apart and analyzed how the machine was built.
The information was moved to SpektreWorks, which developed the American version of the drone.
Iranian Shahed 136 one-way attack drone hits U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain pic.twitter.com/mw9xUD3tCz
— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) February 28, 2026
America is also betting on a psychological blow
Military analysts say that the deployment of LUCAS drones also has a symbolic meaning. For years, Iran has seen cheap attack drones as one of its main asymmetric advantages against technologically more powerful militaries.
Using the US version of this weapons therefore sends a clear signal that Iran’s advantage no longer applies. In essence, the US has shown that they can use the same tactics as well, potentially in larger quantities and with more modern technology.
U.S. Naval Support Activity Bahrain is under repeated attack via Iranian drones. pic.twitter.com/6KK905tD3x
— GMI (@Global_Mil_Info) February 28, 2026
Such a “mirror” of the opponent’s tactics is relatively uncommon in American military strategy. The United States has traditionally relied on technological superiority rather than copying an adversary’s weapons. At the same time, it is not known how many drones the US used, what exact targets they hit, and what the result of Operation Epic Fury was. American officials have not yet released these details.
Unbelievable footage from inside the Era Tower in Manama (Bahrain 🇧🇭), filming the Iranian Shahed drones as it slams into the buildings, just several floors up from the POV pic.twitter.com/cAagZUSnvO
— Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) February 28, 2026
However, the deployment of the LUCAS system suggests that cheap attack drones will they become a fixed part of the arsenal of even the largest military powers. The conflicts of the future will probably not only be a battle of the most expensive technologies, but also large swarms of relatively simple and cheap machines.
