Dec. 3 (UPI) — The U.S. military announced that it has launched a new task force to deploy various drone forces, and the first squadron of one-way-attack drones already has been formed in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. Central Command on Wednesday launched Task Force Scorpion Strike, which is charged with designing and delivering low-cost drone capabilities for its area of responsibility, and already has formed a squadron of Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS) drones designed for autonomous kamikaze strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This new task force sets the conditions for using innovation as a deterrent,” Admiral Brad Cooper said in a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Equipping our skilled warfighters faster with cutting-edge drone capabilities showcases U.S. military innovation and strength, which deters bad actors,” said Cooper, who is commander of U.S. Central Command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has made it a priority<\/a> for the military to improve and increase its use of technology, specifically calling for increased use of a wide array of drones — including cheaper ones that can be rapidly produced and deployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In September, Cooper announced<\/a> the formation of a Rapid Employment Joint Task Force to help streamline the military’s benefits from emerging technologies to “rapidly equip our warriors,” he said at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new task force will build a one-way-attack squadron of LUCAS drones that Central Command said have extensive range, can be launched using catapults, rockets and mobile vehicle systems, and can carry several different weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The LUCAS drone’s design is based on Iran’s Shahed-136 drone, which The War Zone reported<\/a> the U.S. military “got a hold of” and reverse-engineered it to produce the 10-foot-long, eight-foot-wide wingspan aircraft that is now being fielded in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The drones cost about $35,000 each, making them a “low-cost, scalable system that provides cutting-edge capabilities at a fraction of the cost of traditional long-range U.S. systems that can deliver similar effects,” according to Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the drones have not been used in actual combat yet, they have been put through trials and tests, both in the Middle East, where they were already fielded, and at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tests at Yuma have specifically been to determine the ideal warheads to use for missions with the drones, which Army officials said are expected to be rapidly produced using a method like the Liberty Ship cargo ship model during World War II — which is in line with Hegseth’s stated goals for technological adoption and what they cost the military to acquire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “There is a price point that we want to produce a lot of these in a rapid fashion,” Colonel Nicholas Law said in a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hegseth and DOD officials earlier this week outlined the overall drone program, which aims to buy hundreds of thousands of different types of drones over the course of four gauntlets to find vendors that can quickly produce drones at scale and at a cost the military can afford, Military.com reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We need to outfit our combat units with unmanned systems at scale,” Hegseth said. “We cannot wait.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n