At the beginning of the year, the LUCAS drone was unknown, but it is now making a name for itself in the impressive military arsenal of the United States. This kamikaze drone, designed as a copy of the Iranian model Shahed, has become “indispensable” on the front lines in Iran, as explained in a press conference by Admiral Brad Cooper, the highest-ranking officer of CENTCOM (US Central Command in the Middle East).
However, the “Low-Cost Unmanned Combat Attack System,” as it is officially called, did not exist at the beginning of 2024. Former Deputy Secretary of Defense Michael C. Horowitz discussed the genesis of the small device with the specialized media outlet The War Zone on Thursday.
“Precision” but “easy to shoot down”
“As we were in the era of mass production of precision and the American arsenal was entirely composed of sophisticated, expensive, and difficult-to-produce systems, there was a need for research into cheaper alternatives – systems that are easier to use and more autonomous,” recounted the former director of the Office of Emerging Capabilities Policy at the Pentagon.
He then saw a Russian-operated Iranian Shahed drone land on his desk, recovered from the front lines in Ukraine. “The idea of reverse-engineering a Shahed seemed obvious. In a way, Iran had already perfected it,” he recalled.
Thanks to Spektreworks, a company based in Phoenix, Arizona, and the Trump administration, the project took less than two years to come to fruition for only “several tens of millions of dollars,” a “relatively low figure considering the size of the Pentagon’s budget,” according to the former Deputy Secretary of Defense.
First deployed on the front lines during Operation Epic Fury, their role was never revealed by CENTCOM. For Michael C. Horowitz, they are “precise” but “easy to shoot down.” “They should be used in large numbers against military targets to try to overwhelm defenses, or combined with more sophisticated weapons to deceive enemy defenses,” he explained.
