The US military revealed Wednesday that it has a new one-way attack drone task force in the Middle East — and it’s already fielded a squadron of low-cost attack drones.
Task Force Scorpion Strike set up a squadron of Low-cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System drones, which resemble Iranian-designed Shahed drones.
News of the one-way attack drone task force comes just one day after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared his “drone dominance” plan envisioning a $1 billion investment over two years in production and fielding of hundreds of thousands of cheap attack drones, increasingly an integral part of modern warfare.
US Central Command, the military’s combatant command that oversees presence and operations in the Middle East, announced the new LUCAS drone squadron on Wednesday, saying that the drones were already deployed and being used by personnel in the area.
The LUCAS drones boast long ranges and have autonomous features, CENTCOM said, and can be launched from catapults, rocket-assisted takeoff, and mobile ground and vehicle systems.
In the announcement on the task force, Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM’s commander, said that “equipping our skilled warfighters faster with cutting-edge drone capabilities showcases US military innovation and strength, which deters bad actors.”
Video footage shared by the command showed many of the drones sitting on a tarmac at an undisclosed location in the region.
Over a dozen prototype low-cost attack drone designs were on display at the Pentagon this past July. These drones are American-made alternatives to loitering munitions like Iran’s Shahed-136, one of several one-way attack drones that Russia has used against Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure throughout the war.
Russia has been firing Iranian-made and homegrown Shaheds in large-scale air strikes on Ukraine, pairing hundreds of them with missiles to complicate strike packages and attempt to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses without draining its more limited stockpiles of expensive precision-guided munitions.
The effectiveness of Shahed-style drones has grabbed the attention of US Army leadership, with the commanding general of the service’s 25th Infantry Division out of Hawaii saying in October that a low-cost, easily produced and assembled drone like the Shahed was exactly the type of capability the Army wants in the Indo-Pacific region.
During the display at the Pentagon in July, a fact sheet paired with a design from American engineering firm SpektreWorks said the Shahed-style LUCAS could be useful for US forces in the Indo-Pacific region by “providing a viable threat emulator” and offering “a low operational and maintenance cost compared to traditional munitions systems or aircraft.”
The Trump administration has made boosting production of drones a top priority in order to keep up with adversaries like Russia and China, as well as meet the increasing threat drones present in modern warfare.
In May, President Donald Trump praised the cost of Iranian drones, roughly $35,000 to $40,000, adding that the drones were “very good too, and fast and deadly,” and were responsible for “killing tremendous numbers of people” in the Ukraine war.
The Pentagon is pouring more money into all types of drones, seeing them as force multipliers, cheaper strike options than missiles, and a way to extend surveillance reach.
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