According to a report by the U.S. “The War Zone” website on February 28, the U.S. Central Command acknowledged that the U.S. military had used the Low-Cost Unmanned Combat Strike System (LUCAS) drone in actual combat for the first time.
According to the US-based “The War Zone” website, the “Lucas” is a copy of Iran’s Shahd-136 drone, designed to provide the US military with a “far cheaper beyond-visual-range weapon than a missile.”
Some media outlets report that the “Lucas” costs approximately $35,000 to produce, far less than high-end drones that often cost millions or even tens of millions of dollars. It has a maximum range of over 700 kilometers, a maximum endurance of 6 hours, and a payload of 18 kilograms.
It is also reported that Iran recently used a Shahd-136 drone to successfully strike the headquarters of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.
