Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS) drones sit staged on the tarmac at a CENTCOM-area base on Nov. 23. (U.S. Central Command Public Affairs)

U.S. Central Command on Wednesday announced the creation of Task Force Scorpion Strike, the U.S. military’s first dedicated squadron of one-way-attack drones in the Middle East. The move marks a significant step in the Pentagon’s effort to rapidly expand low-cost unmanned strike capabilities as drone warfare overtakes traditional airpower in the region.

The new task force will field the Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System—known as LUCAS—a class of American-made, one-way-attack drones intended to provide U.S. forces with a scalable option for deterring militias and state-backed groups increasingly reliant on inexpensive Iranian models such as the Shahed-136.

“These systems allow us to equip warfighters quickly with cutting-edge capabilities,” CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper said in a statement. “Innovation itself becomes a deterrent.”

The LUCAS platforms cost roughly $35,000 each—a fraction of traditional precision weapons—and can be launched from catapults, vehicles, or rocket-assisted rails. They are designed to operate autonomously and anonymously, reflecting a shift toward disposable strike assets that can be produced and deployed in large numbers.

The announcement follows the recent establishment of CENTCOM’s Rapid Employment Joint Task Force, which was created to fast-track advanced technologies into operational theaters. Oversight of Task Force Scorpion Strike will fall under U.S. Special Operations Command Central.

Part of a Wider Pentagon Push for Drone “Mass”

The deployment of LUCAS drones comes just one day after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth outlined a sweeping initiative known as “Drone Dominance,” a multi-year plan to acquire hundreds of thousands of small unmanned systems for U.S. forces.

Hegseth said the program will unfold in four phases, or “gauntlets,” with the federal government allocating $1 billion to fund production. The first phase—running from February to July 2026—will enlist 12 vendors to collectively produce 30,000 drones at roughly $5,000 per unit.

By the program’s final phase, production targets will increase to 150,000 drones, while per-unit costs are expected to fall to $2,300, with only five vendors remaining.

“We need to outfit our combat units with unmanned systems at scale,” Hegseth said Tuesday. “This is a fight-tonight mindset. Our forces need these systems now.”

A New Era in Regional Warfare

CENTCOM’s rapid adoption of low-cost attack drones underscores a broader strategic shift: adversaries in the Middle East are already fielding mass-produced one-way UAVs, and the U.S. is moving to match scale with scale.

For years, militias backed by Iran have used inexpensive, GPS-guided drones to strike oil infrastructure, airbases, and commercial shipping. Wednesday’s announcement signals that the U.S. intends not only to counter those threats but to build its own rapid-response strike ecosystem.

The Pentagon’s new drone initiatives reflect a battlefield reality that is no longer theoretical: the drone age isn’t coming — it has arrived.