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USA ramp up production of cheaper $35K drone copies

6 articles | Updated 1d ago | Created 3d ago
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The Pentagon is accelerating the manufacturing and deployment swarms of LUCAS drones, which are essentially Iranian "Shaheed-136" suicide aircraft modified for Western use following a failed attempt by US forces in Tehran last week that resulted only in injuries rather than deaths among key officials like Ahmad Vahidi.

  1. 1
    The US Pentagon is actively developing and increasing production of the LUCAS drone, a copy or derivative design based on Iran's Shahed-136.
  2. 2
    This new American version costs approximately $35,000 per unit compared to Iranian models costing around 2.4 million dollars ($789k USD).
  3. 3
    The US aims for mass production of swarms capable of launching up to a thousand drones simultaneously following the Iran operation.
[Mar 19, 06:22] Media reports state that while copies exist and are effective against Iranian targets (like in Syria), there is currently not enough of them to be considered a major threat compared to the originals.