LUCAS is a low-cost, one-way attack drone reverse-engineered from Iran’s Shahed-136 design. It is built for long-range saturation strikes rather than precision boutique warfare. With a range of up to 2,000 kilometers, a cruising speed around 185 km/h, and a 40–50 kilogram high-explosive payload, it mirrors the performance envelope of its Iranian predecessor.
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The drones are launched from dispersed, mobile ground and ship-based platforms operated by U.S. Special Operations and Navy forces, enabling rapid deployment while complicating enemy targeting cycles. The concept mirrors Iran’s distributed Shahed employment model, but integrates real-time ISR, networked targeting, and multi-domain coordination.
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Task Force Scorpion Strike, formally announced on December 3, 2025, was established specifically to counter and replicate Iran’s mass drone doctrine. Rather than dismissing the Shahed model as crude or expendable, planners treated it as a scalable blueprint. The result is what officials have described as “American-made retribution,” delivered at an estimated unit cost near $20,000 per system.
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