Pentagon's first kamikaze drone unit ready for Iran strikes

Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News on Feb 26, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

The Pentagon’s first kamikaze drone unit is ready to participate if President Donald Trump decides to launch strikes on Iran, according to U.S. officials and analysts.

The drone unit is known as Task Force Scorpion and evolved from an experimental U.S. military drone unit. It’s now ready for operations, U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said in an emailed statement.

“We established the squadron last year to rapidly equip our warfighters with new combat drone capabilities that continue to evolve,” he said.

The one-way attack drone unit is now part of the largest regional U.S. military buildup since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which was ordered by Trump to pressure Iran into negotiations about its nuclear program.

U.S.-Iran talks continued Thursday in Geneva, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi saying the two sides made good progress and a new round of talks could happen “very soon,” possibly in “about a week.”

One of the unit’s drones successfully test launched in the Arabian Gulf in mid-December, off the flight deck of the USS Santa Barbara, one of littoral combat ships in the region today as part of the U.S. armada.

The unit’s deployment marks “a pivot away from U.S. military reliance on multi-million dollar platforms like the MQ-9 Reaper, which are increasingly difficult to justify in high-attrition, swarm-based conflicts,” said Forecast International defense analyst Anna Miskelley.

Centcom estimated the Low-Cost Unmanned Combat Attack System drones cost about $35,000 each. The lightweight LUCAS drones are produced by Arizona-based SpektreWorks and can be can be launched for one-way attacks, reconnaissance missions and maritime strikes, among other tasks. The drones have “an extensive range and are designed to operate autonomously,” according to a separate CENTCOM statement.

While the drone unit is just one small part of the broader deployment, its involvement in any upcoming military action would be a first for the brand new unit. It could also validate Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s mandate to accelerate the U.S. military’s use of unmanned aerial vehicles.

At the same time, the fact that the unit’s one-way attack drones were reverse-engineered from Iran’s Shahed-136 shows the U.S. is still playing catch-up after years of Russia and Iran using kamikaze drones to hit targets, including in Ukraine.

With a 40-pound payload, the LUCAS drones couldn’t be used against hardened Iranian targets. But “this force would be an effective way to attack softer, distributed targets in Iran like missile production facilities, road networks and missile launch sites,” according to Bryan Clark, a Hudson Institute think-tank analyst and former strategic planner at the U.S. Navy.

“Destroying these kinds of targets require a lot of dispersed attacks that inexpensive drones are well suited to deliver,” he said. “Iran doesn’t have much of an air defense network anymore, so they may not be able to shoot down many.”

_____