From Tokyo: In a conflict already full of jarring reversals, the opening hours of Operation Epic Fury delivered perhaps the most striking irony of the US-Iran war. On 28 February 2026, US Central Command confirmed that American forces had struck Iranian targets using suicide drones modelled directly on Tehran's own Shahed-136 loitering munition — the same design Iran had supplied to Russia for use against Ukrainian cities.
The weapon in question is the Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System, known as LUCAS. The drones are replicas of the Shahed-136 and were developed after reverse-engineering a Shahed drone that the US had seized a few years ago, according to a US defence official. Built by Arizona-based SpektreWorks, LUCAS is a one-way attack drone reverse-engineered after the Iranian Shahed-136 and is a spinoff of the company's FLM 136 target model, originally designed for counter-drone training to simulate Iran's Shahed variant.
CENTCOM declared that Task Force Scorpion Strike was "for the first time in history" using one-way attack drones in combat during Operation Epic Fury, describing the "low-cost drones, modelled after Iran's Shahed drones" as "delivering American-made retribution." LUCAS drones were used to strike Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps command hubs, air defences, missile and UAV launch sites, and military airfields across Iran.
Task Force Scorpion Strike was announced in December, four months after Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth directed acceleration of the acquisition and fielding of affordable drone technology, with CENTCOM explaining that the task force was "designed to quickly deliver low-cost and effective drone capabilities into the hands of warfighters."
The economics of the LUCAS system are central to its appeal. LUCAS costs roughly $35,000 per unit, making it a low-cost, scalable system that provides cutting-edge capabilities at a fraction of the cost of traditional long-range US weapons. For context, a Tomahawk cruise missile costs approximately $1.3 million per round, as reported by The Register. Each LUCAS unit costs about $35,000, much cheaper than a $30 million Reaper drone and subsequent munitions. The calculus is straightforward: saturation attack capability at disposable cost.
The triangular delta-wing LUCAS drone is roughly 10 feet long and has an 8-foot wingspan, with its delta-wing design optimised for long-range loitering. It is powered by a two-cylinder DA-215 engine, contrasting with the Shahed's four-cylinder clone, providing enhanced fuel efficiency and a reduced acoustic signature. The LUCAS design also includes features that allow for autonomous coordination, making it suitable for swarm tactics and network-centric strikes, according to a US official.
The operational and moral symmetry is difficult to ignore. Russia sourced its Shahed-series drones from Iran starting in 2022, and these drones went on to become one of Russia's central tools in campaigns against Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure. Starting in September 2024, Russia significantly ramped up its use of Shahed drones, increasing from approximately 200 launches per week to more than 1,000 per week by March 2025 as part of a sustained pressure campaign. The design that terrorised Kyiv is now the template for American firepower over Tehran.
Critics of the Trump administration's approach argue the legal and strategic foundations of the operation are shaky. President Trump initiated the war against Iran without congressional approval, without a serious public debate, and in the face of overwhelming public opposition — which the Stimson Center's analysts characterise as unconstitutional, unwise, and a betrayal of his promise to put the interests of the American people first. Pentagon briefers also acknowledged to congressional staff that Iran was not planning to strike US forces unless Israel attacked Iran first, undercutting the administration's claim of an imminent threat as justification for the strikes. These are not trivial objections, and they deserve serious engagement rather than dismissal.
From an Indo-Pacific vantage point, the conflict carries implications that extend well beyond the Gulf. The deployment of USS Gerald R. Ford and USS Abraham Lincoln to the Middle East, the largest dual-carrier concentration in that region since 2003, constitutes a reallocation of American naval power away from the Indo-Pacific at precisely the moment when China watches closely, calculating how American strategic overextension creates opportunities for Beijing in the region. For Australia, a treaty ally with a growing stake in Indo-Pacific stability, that strategic arithmetic matters.
What the LUCAS story reveals most clearly is that the economics of modern warfare have been permanently disrupted. The Shahed-136 is much less expensive than traditional cruise missiles, creating a cost disadvantage when expensive air defence systems are used to counter them, with experts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies noting that deploying large numbers of low-cost drones can overwhelm or exhaust air defences, thereby altering the financial dynamics of modern warfare. The US has now joined Iran and Russia in embracing this logic.
Reasonable people will disagree about whether Operation Epic Fury was strategically wise or legally sound. What is harder to dispute is the drone proliferation reality it reflects: a design born in Iran, refined by Russia against Ukrainian cities, reverse-engineered by America, and now deployed back against its originators. Every military that watched the Ukraine conflict closely — including Australia's — is drawing the same conclusions about the future of attritional, low-cost aerial warfare. The question for Canberra is not whether this technology will spread further through the region, but how quickly, and how prepared we are for a world in which a $35,000 drone can shape the outcome of a great-power confrontation.