The United States government debuted during the ongoing attacks against Iran its new low-cost attack drone LUCAS (Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System), a type of unmanned aircraft designed to locate targets and destroy itself upon impact.
Launched by the Pentagon last year and manufactured by the American company SpektreWorks, the model is based on the concept of “suicide drones”, which are also used by the Iranian regime. These drones are used to be launched towards a specific area, remain flying over the location in search of a target and, when it is identified, dive for a final attack, with no return. Each unit of the LUCAS drone costs around US$35,000 (approximately R$184,000), a value much lower than that of traditional weapons, such as cruise missiles or more complex unmanned aircraft.
According to US Central Command (Centcom), LUCAS drones were operated in the ongoing offensive against Iran by Task Force Scorpion Strike, a special military unit created to accelerate the adoption of low-cost technologies in the American armed forces. In a post on social media, the command stated that this is the first time that single-use attack drones have been used by the United States in combat.
LUCAS can be fired from catapults, mobile platforms on vehicles or rocket-assisted takeoff systems, which expands its use in different combat scenarios. LUCAS can also be integrated with software capable of controlling and coordinating multiple drones at the same time. In practice, this allows the military to launch several aircraft simultaneously, which can fly in a coordinated manner towards the same area of operation, expanding attack capacity and making it difficult for enemy defense systems to intercept.
The drone has similarities with the Shahed-136, a suicide drone developed by the Iranian regime and widely used in conflicts such as Russia in Ukraine. This type of weapon has gained prominence in recent years for allowing relatively cheap and large-scale attacks.
