December 25, 2025: The United States is producing LUCAS, a derivative of the FLM 136 target drone. LUCAS stands for Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System and costs $35,000 each. LUCAS has the same operating characteristics as the FLM 136 target drone which weighs 50 kg, is powered by a 50 HP engine, has a top speed of around 180 kilometers an hour, endurance of six hours and a maximum range of approximately 1,000 kilometers while carrying a 20 kg warhead. LUCAS is currently undergoing final tests, but some American units already have LUCAS. LUCAS can also be equipped with a number of electronic and communications enhancements. The U.S. expects to produce up to 5,000 of these drones a month.

Meanwhile Russia initially produced its own drones after briefly using imported Iranian Shahed-136 drones that cost over $100,000 each. Ukraine demonstrated that you could design and build drones with similar capabilities at less than a tenth of that. The Iranian drone was more complex than it needed to be and even the Russians soon realized this and turned from the Shahed-136 for more capable drones they copied from Ukrainian designs or ones Russians designed.

Iran says it is not supplying Russia with Shahed-136s but they continue to be used. Most of the Shahed-136s used by the Russian since 2023 were built in a Russian drone factory designed and built with Iranian assistance. Russians call this version the Geran-2 or simply Geran. This version costs about $50,000 each, Weight is 240 kg, length is 3.5 meters and wingspan is 2.5 meters. It is armed with a warhead containing 30 to 50 kg, most of it explosives. That’s not a lot because most cruise missiles carry warheads weighing half a ton or more.

Two years ago, Russian air strikes against Ukrainian cities using Iranian Shahed-136s resulted in one of the drones having engine trouble and landing intact. This enabled Ukrainian and foreign investigators to scrutinize the construction of the Shahed-136. Most of those that run into engine problems crash and explode. This one had been given contaminated fuel that caused the drone to gradually descend and hit the ground without enough impact to set off the warhead contact fuze.

Obtaining an intact aircraft allowed for a more thorough inspection to be done. The MD-550 engine was built in Iran and it was confirmed that this was indeed an illegal copy of the German L-550 engine. Iran had obtained one of these engines in 2006 and used it in several drones, including Shahed-136. The L-550 entered production in the 1980s and was a popular engine for ultralight aircraft and drones. Legal copies of the L-550 cost about $15,000 each. That means a Shahed-136 costs about twice the original estimate of $20,000 each. The Shahed-136 warhead will damage, not destroy, most structures it hits. Shahed-136 is launched using a rocket motor that gets it into the air and then detaches and falls away.

Iran provides several different warheads, including an anti-tank version. Navigation is via GPS or a remote operator that can be up to 150 kilometers away from the Shahed-136. Top speed is 185 kilometers an hour, but using a lower cruising speed allows range of over a thousand kilometers. Shahed-136 is relatively slow for a cruise missile and normally flies low and loud. You can hear it coming and Ukraine developed a cell phone app that allowed people to point their phone at a Shahed-136 and automatically transmit the drone location to a central command center that was tracking aerial attacks and alerting anti-aircraft units, especially those that used heavy machine-guns, to shoot down the Shahed-136s. Without the element of surprise, Shahed-136 is a very ineffective weapon.

In late 2022 Ukraine accused Iran of supplying Russia with 1,700 Shahed-136s for use as cruise missiles, especially during covert surprise attacks. Ukrainian air defenses improved to the point where most of the Shahed-136s Russia launches against them were shot down. In one case all the Shahed-136s launched were shot down. Russia modified these drones to fly higher, at 4,000 meters. This offered some protection, but the drones had to come down low to attack their targets. At that point the drones were vulnerable to heavy machine-gun fire.