Having confronted steady drone assaults by Iran and its proxies over the final two years, the US navy is responding by standing up its first one-way attack drone squadron in the Middle East — and utilizing drones that borrow design and know-how straight from Iran.
The squadron falls beneath the management of a process drive set up by US Central Command simply months in the past, Task Force Scorpion Strike, and can use drones known as Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System, or LUCAS drones. The LUCAS drones have been created after builders reverse-engineered a Shahed drone from Iran, which the US captured a couple of years in the past, a US protection official stated.
The Shahed drones have additionally been employed by Russia in its assaults on Ukraine.
“LUCAS drones deployed by CENTCOM have an extensive range and are designed to operate autonomously,” a press launch by CENTCOM stated on Wednesday. “They can be launched with different mechanisms to include catapults, rocket-assisted takeoff, and mobile ground and vehicle systems.”
It’s unclear the place particularly the squadron will likely be primarily based in the Middle East. The US navy has been working feverishly in latest months to advance its personal drone capabilities as drones have dominated warfare all through the Middle East and in Ukraine.
Iran and its proxies, for instance, hammered US bases in the area for months in the wake of Hamas’ invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023. One attack on an outpost in Jordan killed three US service members.
At the identical time, drones and missiles have been fired continuously at business delivery in the Red Sea by the Iran-backed Houthis. And in 2024, Iran launched roughly 170 drones alongside greater than 120 ballistic missiles in the direction of Israel, nearly all of which have been shot down. US forces intercepted 70 drones and three ballistic missiles the evening of the attack; two US airmen received Silver Stars for his or her efforts throughout the mission.
The US protection official acknowledged to NCS that the US’ deal with bigger and costlier precision techniques “put our forces at a disadvantage” in opposition to low-cost techniques like the drones being utilized by Iran.
“But now we’re flipping the script,” the official stated.
The official declined to say precisely what number of drones the new squadron in the Middle East had in its arsenal, saying solely there have been “many” and extra could be coming. The drones price roughly $35,000 every, the official stated, which is comparatively low-cost in comparison with different US weapons techniques.
The Iranian Shahed drone that was captured by the US a couple of years in the past was broken at the time, the official stated. A bunch of US firms labored to reverse engineer it and develop the LUCAS drone primarily based on what they discovered.
The navy group that helped lead the improvement of the drones, Task Force Scorpion Strike, has almost two dozen personnel led by service members inside Special Operations Command – Central, the official stated. Not all of these personnel are in the Middle East.
“This new task force sets the conditions for using innovation as a deterrent,” Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of CENTCOM, stated in Wednesday’s launch.