The Pentagon has confirmed that US forces struck Iranian targets using weapons that are copies of Iran's own Shahed 136 suicide drones.
When Operation Epic Fury began on the morning of February 28, involved in the action was Task Force Scorpion Strike, the US military's first one-way-attack drone squadron, based in the Middle East.
US Central Command, part of the Department of Defense (DoD) responsible for directing military operations across the Middle East and Central/South Asia, disclosed the unit's involvement in a press release.
"The first hours of the operation included precision munitions launched from air, land, and sea. Additionally, CENTCOM's Task Force Scorpion Strike employed low-cost one-way attack drones for the first time in combat," it stated.
Task Force Scorpion Strike (TFSS) was only announced in December, when it was said to have formed up with a squadron of Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS) drones.
These "have an extensive range and are designed to operate autonomously. They can be launched with different mechanisms to include catapults, rocket-assisted takeoff, and mobile ground and vehicle systems," CENTCOM said at the time.
According to CNN, the LUCAS drones were developed after technicians reverse-engineered a Shahed 136 drone from Iran, which the US captured a few years ago.
It is reported that each LUCAS drone costs approximately $35,000, making it significantly cheaper than other US long-range weapons such as Tomahawk cruise missiles, which cost about $1.3 million apiece.
We find it difficult to believe that the US couldn't have developed its own one-way attack drone, so perhaps it was just more cost-effective to copy what was already known to work?
The LUCAS drone is about 10 feet long and has a wingspan of eight feet, and is said to have been developed by Arizona-based SpektreWorks in cooperation with the US military. The company lists a very similar drone, the FLM 136, on its website, which has a range of 444 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 74 knots.
Ironically, Iranian targets will have been destroyed using drones almost identical to those designed by the country's own engineers. Iran has also exported these drones to Russia to use mercilessly against Ukrainian civilians in the ongoing war in that country. ®
Source: The register