The UAV, which closely resembled an Iranian Shahed-136 one-way attack drone, was returned to the US military.

Captain Daniel Arsenault of Hot Spots Charters recently made what may be the most unusual catch of his career: a delta-wing military drone closely resembling the Iranian Shahed-136. 

While on a fishing trip near Eglin Air Force Base in Florida on Saturday, Arsenault approached the drone, first pulling a mahi-mahi from underneath it before recovering the drone itself.

After the find was made public, Eglin AFB confirmed that a Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS) drone had been lost during routine testing on September 17, but was not initially recovered. Hot Spots Charters later confirmed that it had handed the recovered drone over to the US military.

Images of the drone posted online by the fishermen hinted at the damage it took during its plunge into the ocean. The photos showed a damaged delta-wing airframe that was missing its engine, propeller, and nose cone/seeker. The missing components likely separated during impact with the water.

How America Is Using Iran’s Best Weapon Against It

The aircraft in question belongs to the LUCAS family of drones, which is closely connected to the FLM-186 developed by SpektreWorks. The FLM-186 originated as a target testing drone with the job of mimicking enemy one-way attack drones like Iran’s similar Shahed-136. Accordingly, the US military reverse-engineered the Iranian Shahed-136 for training and testing. After it became clear that the drone also functioned as an effective weapon, the US took the obvious next step and weaponized it for its own use; in a possibly ironic development, the US has struck Iran with LUCAS drones during the ongoing war.

The Iranian Shahed-136 has become one of the defining weapons of contemporary drone warfare. A one-way attack UAV, the Shahed combines a small aircraft with a guidance system and an explosive payload. Simple—and cheap enough to launch in high quantities. The thing doesn’t even need to return because the aircraft itself is part of the weapon system. Russia has used the Shahed system extensively against Ukraine to great effect. Iran and associated forces have demonstrated the same basic concept across the Middle East, proving that combat mass is often more desirable than top-end performance. When a $30,000 Shahed-136 drone can force a defender to expend a $4 million Patriot missile to defend itself, that exchange in and of itself is a win.

America recognized the cost asymmetry and harnessed the concept for itself. LUCAS presents the US embrace of the same underlying economics. Each platform, like the one recovered by Hot Spots Charter, costs around $35,000 each—about the same as a Toyota RAV4. That’s pretty cheap by the standard of American precision-strike weapons. Designed for long-range, beyond-line-of-sight operations, with autonomous operation, the LUCAS offers flexible launch options and can be operated in all varieties of environments.

How the LUCAS Drone Wound Up in Florida Waters

Eglin AFB is exactly where you’d expect to find a LUCAS system. Eglin hosts the US Air Force’s 96th Test Wing, with a huge test range of approximately 120,000 square miles of overwater airspace covering the eastern third of the Gulf of Mexico from the Florida panhandle to the Keys. This provides fantastic space for weapons testing.

So a failed test vehicle ending up in the Gulf isn’t all that extraordinary. That’s why the USAF maintains 120-foot recovery boats under contract, which recover the majority of downed drones. Still, some slip through, as Captain Arsenault demonstrated.

And while the incident garnered headlines in Florida and attracted some online commentary, there’s nothing embarrassing about losing a LUCAS drone. Expendability is part of the drone’s appeal. The thing is expected to crash, malfunction, and fail; the entire system is built around mass and risk, and losing a few while experimenting with design is half the point.

About the Author: Harrison Kass

Harrison Kass is a writer and attorney focused on national security, technology, and political culture. His work has appeared in Tablet, City Journal, The Hill, The Spectator, and The Cipher Brief. He holds a JD from the University of Oregon and a master’s in Global & Joint Program Studies from NYU. More at harrisonkass.com.

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