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As Washington quietly fields a U.S.-made clone of Iran’s infamous Shahed-136 “kamikaze” drone, CENTCOM is signaling that America is finally willing to fight cheap, proxy-style wars on our terms—not Tehran’s.
Story Snapshot
- CENTCOM has deployed LUCAS, a low-cost one-way attack drone directly modeled on Iran’s Shahed-136, across the Middle East.
- A new CENTCOM task force is pairing LUCAS with AI and autonomy, shifting U.S. strategy toward affordable “mass” firepower.
- LUCAS costs around $35,000 per drone, undercutting the expensive missile shots patriots watched drain U.S. magazines for years.
- The program turns Iran’s own playbook against it while raising serious questions about escalation and drone warfare norms.
How an Iranian Design Became a U.S. Battlefield Tool
U.S. Central Command has now confirmed what defense-watchers long suspected: American forces obtained an intact Iranian Shahed-136, tore it down, and worked with U.S. companies to build a near-clone called LUCAS. According to reporting, officials say the core design “pretty much follows” the original, but with American production quality and integration. In plain terms, the Pentagon finally admitted it copied an adversary’s cheap kamikaze drone instead of betting everything on gold-plated missiles.
This shift matters for Trump-era conservatives who watched the Obama–Biden years burn through billion-dollar systems while letting Iran’s proxies swarm allies with hardware that costs less than a luxury pickup. Iran’s Shahed-136 showed in Ukraine and across the Middle East that slow, simple drones can terrorize cities, strain air defenses, and impose brutal cost asymmetry. By cloning the airframe and concept, CENTCOM is acknowledging that ignoring low-end threats nearly handed Tehran a strategic bargain.
LUCAS, Cost, and the New Drone/AI Task Force
CENTCOM describes LUCAS as a low-cost, scalable, long-range one-way attack system, quoting a price around $35,000 per drone—orders of magnitude cheaper than typical U.S. precision weapons. The drone reportedly flies autonomously beyond line of sight, launched from catapults, rocket-assisted devices, or mobile platforms. A new CENTCOM task force dedicated to kamikaze drones, AI, and autonomy now fields LUCAS, tying it into an ecosystem of unmanned vessels and smart targeting networks built up over recent years.
For readers sick of Pentagon waste, this looks like overdue common sense. Instead of firing million-dollar interceptors at $20,000 Iranian imports, U.S. forces can field their own disposable strike vehicles in volume. That directly supports Trump’s push to restore hard deterrence without endless occupations and trillion-dollar boondoggles. However, conservatives who value clear rules of war and civilian protection will note the danger: cheap, semi-autonomous weapons can tempt policymakers to reach for kinetic options more often, precisely because each shot seems “affordable.”
Iran’s Shahed Legacy and What CENTCOM Is Really Signaling
The Shahed-136 was built to be crude, pre-programmed, and good enough: plug in coordinates, launch, and let it loiter toward fixed infrastructure or military sites. Russia’s use of these drones in Ukraine confirmed that even unsophisticated tech, when massed, can hit power grids, factories, and morale. Iran and its proxies—from Hezbollah to the Houthis—exported the concept across the region, menacing U.S. bases, shipping lanes, and allies with anonymous, low-cost attacks that were hard to deter without hitting Iranian soil directly.
By deploying LUCAS in CENTCOM’s backyard, Washington is sending an unmistakable message to Tehran and its militias: your asymmetric edge is fading. If Iran floods the sky with cheap one-way munitions, the United States can answer in kind, but with better intelligence, logistics, and targeting. That is good news for American troops and partners who endured years of rocket and drone harassment under previous, softer policies. It also fits President Trump’s doctrine of peace through strength—showing adversaries their favorite tools can be mirrored and overmatched.
Benefits for U.S. Warfighters—and Risks Patriots Should Watch
Operationally, LUCAS offers commanders a middle option between doing nothing and firing high-end cruise missiles. It lets CENTCOM hit static or lightly defended sites at long range, conserve premium munitions for truly high-value targets, and avoid putting pilots in harm’s way. For a theater filled with Iranian missiles, drones, and proxies, that flexibility can help prevent wider wars while still punishing attacks on U.S. troops, tankers, or regional partners when necessary.
Hey @JohnKonrad, ask about this⤵️
“An Iranian Drone Clone is Now a CENTCOM Weapon: A Remarkable Shift in Pentagon Thinking”
By @SteveBryenhttps://t.co/IEKFumIqKe
CC @InfantryDort @TrentTelenko— Dan Schwartz (@Dan_Schwartz) December 5, 2025
At the same time, conservative readers who distrust unrestrained government power should keep a critical eye on how this technology is used. A drone that flies itself to preloaded coordinates blurs lines of accountability if targeting data or intelligence is flawed. As cheap systems proliferate, the temptation grows to treat strikes as routine tools of “management” rather than last-resort measures. Ensuring civilian oversight, constitutional war powers, and strict rules of engagement keeps these capabilities in service of American security—not empire-building.
Sources:
U.S. Deploys Shahed-136 Clones To Middle East As A Warning To Iran – The War Zone
US clones Iranian one-way attack drone as it builds own kamikaze fleet – The Canary
U.S. Deploys Iranian Drone Copy In Middle East Unit – Aviation Week