US turns Iran’s own drone playbook against it with low-cost copies of ‘Shahed’

Visuals from the Iran-US-Israel conflict

• US deploys LUCAS attack drones in combat for first time
• Iran's Shahed drones cause minor damage to US base
• LUCAS drones modeled after Iran's Shahed-136 for strike missions

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A new phase of automated warfare unfolded over the weekend as the United States introduced a low-cost one-way attack drone into active combat during strikes on Iran, prompting retaliatory launches of Iranian Shahed drones across the region.

The American system, known as LUCAS, was used for the first time in Saturday’s operation against Iranian targets under Operation Epic Fury. Developed as a budget strike platform and modeled on Iran’s Shahed-136, the drone represents Washington’s entry into the type of expendable aerial warfare that Tehran has relied on for years.

LUCAS is an expendable drone platform that costs about $35,000, roughly ₹31.87 lakh, per unit.

Alongside these drones, US forces also launched Tomahawk cruise missiles and deployed F-18 and F-35 fighter jets as part of the operation.

Confirming its deployment, U.S. Central Command said: “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.”

Iran responded with its own fleet of Shahed drones, targeting the U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain. A CENTCOM official told Defense One that “A few did get through” but caused no casualties and inflicted only “minimal damage” to the base, which remains operational.

The LUCAS drone was publicly displayed last July by Arizona-based Spectreworks during an event at the Pentagon, shortly before the Air Force began searching for what it described as an “exact replica” of the Shahed-136. In December, CENTCOM announced it had moved a “squadron” of LUCAS drones into the region for testing and operational experimentation.

On Saturday, however, an official clarified that the term was flexible. “Don’t think of it as a traditional squadron; it could be 100 or 2,000,” they said.

Originally designed to imitate the Shahed for training purposes, LUCAS features an open, modular structure capable of carrying different payloads. Officials said in December that the system was being evaluated for reconnaissance and intelligence roles as well as one-way strike missions. On Dec. 16, one of the drones was test-launched from the littoral combat ship Santa Barbara in the Persian Gulf.

While officials declined to specify how many LUCAS drones were used in the weekend strikes, they confirmed that Tomahawk cruise missiles were also part of the operation. When asked about reports suggesting that 21 Tomahawks had been fired, one official responded that the number was “way more” than that.

The scale of Iran’s retaliatory capacity remains uncertain. Sanctions have constrained its domestic production by limiting access to components such as accelerometers, gyroscopes and satellite-navigation receivers, forcing reliance on smuggling networks.

Tehran’s available inventory is also influenced by exports to Russia, which has relied heavily on Shahed drones in its war in Ukraine.

A January 2025 report by CNA stated that Iran was “struggling to meet Russia’s demand.” In response, Russia has expanded its own production capacity. U.S. satellite imagery published last July indicated that Moscow had significantly enlarged its Alabuga SEZ facility, with plans to produce up to 25,000 Shahed-136 drones annually, according to the Institute for Science and International Security. The institute suggested the actual output may be closer to 18,540 per year.

The Royal United Services Institute estimated in 2024 that Russia’s per-unit cost for producing the drones stood at around $80,000.

The extent to which Moscow might replenish Iranian stocks remains unclear, though collaboration between the two countries on drone development and tactics has deepened.

Wall Street Journal chief financial correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov wrote on X: “The Iranians and their Russian allies had four years of target practice on Ukrainian cities to improve their Shahed drones. And most of the world smiled politely and thought it is just the Ukrainians’ unfortunate problem,” adding, “New Shaheds are much more difficult to intercept and are very accurate.”