US Pentagon’s first kamikaze drone unit ready for Iran strikes

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon’s first kamikaze drone unit is ready to participate

if US President Donald Trump decides to launch strikes on Iran

, according to US officials and analysts.

The drone unit is known as Task Force Scorpion and evolved from an experimental US military drone unit. It is now ready for operations, US Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman, Captain Tim Hawkins, said in an e-mailed 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 US military build-up since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which was ordered by Mr Trump to pressure Iran into negotiations about its nuclear program. 

US-Iran talks continued on Feb 26 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 2025, off the flight deck of the USS Santa Barbara, one of littoral combat ships in the region today as part of the US armada.

The unit’s deployment marks “a pivot away from US 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 defence analyst Anna Miskelley.

CENTCOM estimated the Low-Cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS) drones cost about US$35,000 (S$44,200) each. The lightweight LUCAS drones are produced by Arizona-based SpektreWorks and 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 Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s mandate to accelerate the US 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 US is still playing catch-up after years of Russia and Iran using kamikaze drones to hit targets, including in Ukraine. 

With an 18kg payload, the LUCAS drones could not 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 Mr Bryan Clark, a Hudson Institute think-tank analyst and former strategic planner at the US 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 defence network anymore, so they may not be able to shoot down many.” BLOOMBERG