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Video released by US Navy (Video/X)
The United States Navy has released a video showing the motorboat of its Low‑cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS) drone from the formation platform of the USS Santa Barbara successful the Arabian Gulf.The clip shows the first-ever motorboat of the LUCAS drone from a naval ship, highlighting the increasing relation of inexpensive one-way onslaught drones successful modern warfare.The motorboat comes amid the ongoing US-led subject run against Iran successful which American and Israeli forces person carried retired coordinated strikes against Tehran's subject infrastructure.
Officials accidental the drone is portion of a caller procreation of low-cost 'kamikaze' systems designed to overwhelm adversaries with ample numbers of inexpensive but lethal unmanned aircraft.
First combat usage of the LUCAS drone
The United States deployed the LUCAS drone for the archetypal clip during Operation Epic Fury.According to the United States Central Command, the drones were utilized alongside accepted airstrikes to people cardinal Iranian subject assets, including command-and-control facilities, aerial defence systems, rocket motorboat sites and drone bases linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.Click present for unrecorded updates connected Day 15 of warfare CENTCOM described the strategy arsenic a low-cost one-way onslaught drone modeled aft Iran’s ain Shahed drones.
“These low-cost drones, modelled aft Iran’s Shahed drones, are present delivering American-made retribution,” the bid said successful a connection connected societal media level X.The coordinated strikes were launched arsenic portion of a broader run ordered by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, targeting strategical Iranian subject infrastructure.
What is the LUCAS drone?
The Low-cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System, oregon LUCAS is simply a tiny expendable drone designed to execute one-way onslaught missions akin to the Iranian Shahed‑136 drone.
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According to the Pentagon, the strategy was developed by SpektreWorks, a defence exertion institution based successful Phoenix, Arizona.The drone was archetypal publically showcased successful July 2025. Each portion costs astir $35,000, making it dramatically cheaper than accepted subject craft oregon cruise missiles.
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For comparison, the MQ‑9 Reaper drone costs betwixt $20 cardinal and $30 million, though it is reusable and importantly much advanced.Because of its debased outgo and expendable design, LUCAS tin beryllium produced successful ample numbers and utilized successful swarm attacks designed to overwhelm force defenses.
Reverse-engineered from Iran’s Shahed drone
US defence officials accidental the LUCAS drone was developed aft American engineers reverse-engineered captured Iranian drones, peculiarly the Shahed-136 platform.The Shahed drone has go 1 of Iran’s astir wide utilized weapons successful caller conflicts, including attacks crossed the Middle East and successful the Russia‑Ukraine War.
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By studying the plan of these drones, the United States developed a akin low-cost level with improved exertion and modular systems.
How the LUCAS drone works?
The LUCAS drone uses an open-architecture design, allowing operators to modify its payload and onboard systems depending connected ngo requirements.It tin beryllium utilized for aggregate roles, including:
- One-way onslaught missions
- Surveillance and reconnaissance
- Communications relay operations
- Target drones for grooming exercises
The drone tin beryllium launched from the ground, trucks oregon ships and tin run astatine mean altitudes implicit extended ranges.One of its cardinal advantages is logistical simplicity. Unlike galore precocious drones, LUCAS tin beryllium operated by unit with minimal specialised training, allowing it to beryllium deployed rapidly successful rapidly evolving combat environments.
The Shahed drone: Iran’s low-cost weapon
Iran’s Shahed-136 drone has go a cardinal portion of the country’s subject strategy.The delta-winged drone is designed arsenic a “loitering munition,” meaning it tin alert toward a people country earlier diving into it and detonating its explosive payload.According to analysts astatine the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the drone has a scope of astir 1,000 miles tin scope speeds of astir 114 miles per hour, and carries a warhead weighing betwixt 66 and 123 pounds.Each portion is estimated to outgo betwixt $20,000 and $50,000, making it a comparatively inexpensive limb susceptible of inflicting important damage.According to experts, the affordability of specified drones allows countries to motorboat ample numbers of them simultaneously, forcing adversaries to expend acold much costly interceptor missiles.Iran has deployed ample numbers of drones against targets crossed the region, including Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.According to the determination government, hundreds of drones person been intercepted, though immoderate person managed to onslaught infrastructure specified arsenic airports, hotels, ports and residential buildings.US officials accidental the increasing usage of inexpensive drones has forced militaries to rethink accepted aerial defence strategies.
America’s ‘affordable mass’ strategy
The United States is present pursuing a strategy known arsenic “affordable mass,” which focuses connected deploying ample numbers of inexpensive autonomous weapons.The Pentagon is expanding home drone manufacturing arsenic portion of the Drone Dominance Program, a $1 cardinal inaugural authorised nether the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025.The extremity is to rapidly standard up accumulation of inexpensive drones susceptible of operating successful swarms.Officials said that the Pentagon aims to procure much than 300,000 domestically produced weaponised drones by 2027 portion importantly reducing accumulation costs.According to estimates, the ongoing run nether Operation Epic Fury costs astir $900 cardinal per day, with the archetypal 100 hours unsocial costing astir $3.7 billion.By utilizing low-cost systems similar LUCAS, the US subject hopes to trim the reliance connected costly missiles and craft portion maintaining the quality to onslaught strategical targets.
