3 minutes of readingUpdated: Mar 3, 2026 09:32 pm IST
The United States successfully debuted a low-cost suicide drone in combat in Iran just eight months after the Pentagon’s unveiling, as the United States pushes to accelerate its weapons programs.
The LUCAS (low-cost unmanned combat attack system) drone, made by SpektreWorks of Arizona, was on display in July 2025 when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth walked the Pentagon’s inner courtyard with more than a dozen companies vying to supply new equipment to the military.
Drones have become critical to modern warfare following their effective use in the Ukraine war, including the Iranian-made and Russian-piloted Shahed systems that closely resemble the LUCAS. The sector is also among the most competitive in the US defense industry, with SpektreWorks competing for Pentagon contracts against major defense companies and a wave of Silicon Valley-backed startups such as Anduril, Shield AI and AeroVironment.
US Central Command said the LUCAS drones are modeled after the Shahed.
Rapid deployment
The rapid deployment of LUCAS represents a departure from traditional Pentagon acquisition timelines, which typically span years from initial development to operational deployment. Defense officials said the compressed schedule reflects lessons learned from watching the drone war in Ukraine, where both sides have employed thousands of low-cost unmanned systems.
The LUCAS deployment comes as the Pentagon pushes to rapidly expand U.S. industrial capacity to produce cheap, affordable drones under the $1 billion Drone Mastery Program authorized in the “One Big Beautiful Bill of 2025.”
The LUCAS drone uses an open architecture that allows for different payloads and communications systems, and can be deployed for attacks or as a target drone, according to the company’s materials. It can be launched from the ground or from a truck. At about $35,000 each, they are much cheaper than the MQ-9 Reaper, which costs between $20 million and $40 million, but they are reusable and much more sophisticated.
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The government owns the intellectual property of the LUCAS design, meaning multiple manufacturers could produce the system, although SpektreWorks currently has manufacturing contracts.
SpektreWorks declined to comment for this story.
Drones use Starlink and Viasat satellites
During its development at the Pentagon, the LUCAS drone was combined with satellite communications systems, including Viasat’s MUSIC and SpaceX’s Starlink or Starshield, according to two sources familiar with the program. Reuters was unable to determine what connectivity systems are being used during current operations in Iran.
Neither SpaceX nor Viasat responded to requests for comment.
A startup called Noda provides the software to control the drones, known as an “orchestrator” that allows fighters to control multiple autonomous systems, one of the sources familiar with the program said. Noda declined to comment.
Drone experts told Reuters that the LUCAS design shares similarities with Iran’s Shahed drone, which Tehran has supplied to Russia for use in Ukraine. According to defense analysts, the Shahed is believed to be a copy of Israel’s Harpy loitering munition. The Harpy’s design has been widely replicated in countries such as China and Taiwan.
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The LUCAS also resembles the Drone Anti-Radar (DAR), a loitering munition jointly developed in the 1970s and 1980s.
