50 Million Won per Unit: US Deploys First 'Suicide Drone' LUCAS Against Iran [Lee Jong-yoon’s Military World]

According to The Financial News, one of the most decisive tactical shifts observed in the recent conflict in the Middle East involving the United States of America (US), Israel, and the Islamic Republic of Iran is the appearance of the US military’s first low-cost, long-range suicide drone, the Low-cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS). Analyses by the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), RAND Corporation, and other military think tanks indicate that LUCAS paradoxically traces its origins to Iranian drones. The U.S. military collected debris from Iranian-made HESA Shahed 136 drones recovered on battlefields in Ukraine and the Middle East, conducted detailed analysis of their airframes, retained the basic structural design, and then replaced the internal communications and navigation systems with US-standard advanced technologies in a process described as “Americanization.”
LUCAS uses a delta-wing configuration with a length of about 3 meters and a wingspan of roughly 2.4 meters, which minimizes its radar cross-section (RCS). Its maximum takeoff weight is under 200 kilograms. Powered by a rear-mounted piston engine driving a pusher propeller, it cruises at approximately 194 kilometers per hour. The warhead weighs around 20 kilograms, giving it roughly twice the destructive power of an AGM-114 Hellfire missile. By using low-cost composite materials such as wood and fiberglass, its unit price has been driven down to about 35,000 dollars (around 50 million won), which is considered its greatest advantage.
However, LUCAS operates on an entirely different performance level from Iranian-made drones. Its essence lies not in the hardware but in its "intelligent autonomy." Equipped with low-cost AI chipsets, it can carry out "last-mile" autonomous strikes based on onboard image analysis, even when communications are cut off by heavy jamming. By integrating Starlink satellite internet service with a mesh network, it can be controlled in swarms and receive target updates in real time, even beyond line of sight.
Starlink provides the macro-level backbone network, while the mesh network maintains the micro-level tactical network on the ground in a complementary relationship. Starlink links thousands of low Earth orbit satellites to deliver high-speed satellite internet with virtually no dead zones across the globe. In particular, even when ground-based base stations are destroyed in extreme battlefield conditions, it can send and receive data directly from space, serving as an uninterrupted data lifeline for hyper-connected warfare.
The mesh network, by contrast, allows drones to connect directly to other drones and terminals to other terminals like a spiderweb, without routing through a central control node or base station. Even if a base station is destroyed by enemy jamming, the surviving drones can continue to maintain their own network and share information, providing what experts describe as "phoenix-like survivability."
Visual SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) technology, which uses video feeds to correct navigation errors, operates in conjunction with GPS. LUCAS also employs a modular design that allows rapid switching between strike and reconnaissance roles simply by swapping the nose module.
Experts assess that LUCAS imposes a "cost-effectiveness dilemma" on adversaries by forcing them to expend MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile system interceptors costing millions of dollars against drones priced in the tens of thousands. In doing so, it secures an asymmetric cost exchange that can drain the enemy’s defense budget first. In the latest operation, Task Force Scorpion Strike, a unit dedicated to CENTCOM, launched hundreds of LUCAS drones in swarms, demonstrating their value as a supporting asset capable of neutralizing the Islamic Republic of Iran’s S-300 surface-to-air missile system air defenses.
The US is entering an era in which its annual defense budget may reach 2,000 trillion won. The fact that even the world’s preeminent military power, which already spends more on defense than any other country, is restructuring its force posture around low-cost, mass-produced swarm weapons linked to large-scale unmanned force expansion projects carries important implications for the South Korean military as well. The innovative replication and cost efficiency demonstrated by LUCAS are rapidly becoming the new standard for future warfare. Military experts argue that South Korea’s armed forces must go beyond merely producing cheap platforms and instead concentrate policy efforts on achieving true swarm-operational capability and intelligent autonomous mission execution.


wangjylee@fnnews.com Lee Jong-yoon Reporter