Pentagon deploys new Kamikaze drone copied from Iranian design

The move mirrors an Iranian tactic of recovering crashed American drones, such as the Central Intelligence Agency’s RQ-170 Sentinel, and reverse-engineering them to build their own versions. It is also an early example of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s initiative, known as Drone Dominance, to buy cheap drones made by American companies that can quickly be moved to the field.

The Defense Department on Wednesday is announcing Task Force Scorpion Strike, a squadron of low-cost unmanned systems built by an Arizona-based defense company, SpektreWorks, as the U.S. military’s first one-way attack drone unit based in the Middle East. SpektreWorks designed the system by reverse-engineering Iran’s Shahed-136 drone, which has been used by Tehran and its associated militia groups to attack U.S. troops and commercial vessels across the Middle East, and by Russia to strike Ukrainian troops and cities.

The move to base a squadron of one-way attack drones in the Middle East comes almost two years after an Iranian attack drone killed three U.S. soldiers when it struck an outpost in northeastern Jordan called Tower 22. It is a further sign that in the Middle East, where adversaries use cheap, rudimentary systems to target American troops, the Pentagon is moving away from expensive and complex systems that take years to reach the field.

Hegseth announced the Drone Dominance initiative in July in an effort to build up quickly the Pentagon’s arsenal of cheap, small attack drones by reducing red tape in the military’s acquisition system and boosting American drone manufacturing. The goal is to have every Army squad unit be armed with small, one-way attack drones by the end of fiscal year 2026.

The FLM 136 drone closely resembles the Shahed-136, with a triangular wingspan measuring just over 8 feet, according to the company’s website. The drones can be launched by different mechanisms, including catapults, rocket-assisted takeoff, and mobile ground and vehicle systems, according to a Central Command statement.

The drone is fully autonomous, meaning it can operate with little or no human interaction, relying on sensors and artificial intelligence to navigate to its target. It can fly for about six hours, according to SpektreWorks.

Each FLM 136, also known as Lucas, costs $35,000, according to Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for Central Command. The MQ-9 Reaper drones cost an estimated $16 million, according to a spokesman for General Atomics, its manufacturer. In many cases, kamikaze drones cost far less than the interceptors used to shoot them down.

Other U.S. adversaries such as China have successfully copied American fighter-aircraft designs, but have struggled to imitate their complex propulsion technology, said Caitlin Lee, a drone expert who is director of acquisition and technology policy at Rand. But now, widely available commercial electronics have made the reverse-engineering of less-complex, small drones much easier.

“In the war in Ukraine, both sides have reverse-engineered each other’s drones, drawing on commercial hardware and software," she said. “We can expect to see much more reverse-engineering of drone technology in the future."

In the U.S. military, reverse-engineering has largely been limited to developing targets that simulate enemy weapons, according to Lee.

The new squadron is being deployed less than three months after Central Command announced a new Rapid Employment Joint Task Force, led by Chief Technology Officer Joy Shanaberger, to fast-track the development and deployment of new technologies. The ultimate goal for the task force is to be able to field a new capability every 60 days, which should be achieved by December 2026, Shanaberger said in a September interview.

One goal for the task force is to try to offset the loss of expensive MQ-9 Reaper drones with cheap, expendable systems, she said at the time.

“Under current leadership, and a little bit to the byproduct of the war in Ukraine, I think people are really starting to understand the necessity for being able to move at a pace that both technology as well as our adversaries move," Shanaberger said.

Write to Lara Seligman at lara.seligman@wsj.com