A U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone is pictured at Rafael Hernandez Airport in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, on Nov. 30, 2025. (Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo – AFP / Getty Images)
By Joe Saunders March 4, 2026 at 6:05pm
Turns out, one-way drone warfare is a two-way street.
During a briefing Tuesday on the progress of the ongoing U.S.-Israeli attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran, Admiral Brad Cooper touted the success of a new weapon in the U.S. military’s arsenal.
And it originated with the Iranian military itself.
Update from CENTCOM Commander on Operation Epic Fury: pic.twitter.com/epEohq64Vf
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 3, 2026
“For the first time, U.S. Central Command’s drone task force, called Task Force Scorpion Strike, launched countless one-way attack drones, achieving massive effects,” Cooper said about four minutes into the video above.
“I’d like to point out, these drones were originally an Iranian design. We took them back to America, made them better, and fired them right back at Iran.”
As the Military Times reported on Saturday, the weapons system known by the acronym LUCAS (Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System) was reverse-engineered from the Iranian Shahed-136, a kamikaze drone built to be launched on one-way flights to destroy itself, inflicting damage on opposing forces in the process.
As might be expected of a military innovation under President Donald Trump, it also became combat-effective at warp speed.
The formation of the drone-based Task Force Scorpion Strike was announced only in early December. In the first week of March, it’s already playing a key role in a major military engagement.
Of course, its Iranian counterpart isn’t just sitting on the sidelines.
Shahed drones (the word means “witness” in Farsi, the language of Iran) have gotten through defense systems to strike in Bahrain and Dubai in Iranian retaliation for the U.S. attacks, according to Reuters.
The Shahed system is a fearsome weapon, the kind the fanatical murderers in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps favor.
And its very effectiveness is why the U.S. military co-opted it. Whatever other faults the Iranian regime might have demonstrated over 47 years of festering evil — and they are legion — errant stupidity is not among them.
Americans could be hearing a great deal about it in the coming days, and not always in optimistic briefings from Admiral Cooper at Central Command.
But the use of an Iranian-originated weapon against the tyranny in Tehran is still a moment to savor.
Using their own drone technology against them is awesome.
— Brett Thomas (@BGLordofthechat) February 28, 2026
Turning an enemy’s own strength against him is a basic principle of martial arts — and making war is martial arts writ large. American drone warfare is putting that principle into practice in a case of perfect justice by using a weapon originally designed by Iranians.
“I just could not be prouder of our men and women in uniform leveraging innovation to create dilemmas for the enemy,” Cooper said.
It’s a good bet that the Iranian military (what’s left of it, at this point) isn’t feeling the same way.
Joe has spent more than 30 years as a reporter, copy editor and metro desk editor in newsrooms in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida. He’s been with Liftable Media since 2015.
Joe has spent more than 30 years as a reporter, copy editor and metro editor in newsrooms in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida. He’s been with Liftable Media since 2015. Largely a product of Catholic schools, who discovered Ayn Rand in college, Joe is a lifelong newspaperman who learned enough about the trade to be skeptical of every word ever written. He was also lucky enough to have a job that didn’t need a printing press to do it.
Birthplace
Philadelphia
Nationality
American
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