The United States has unveiled its own low-cost combat drone, designed to rival Iran’s widely used Shahed-136 loitering munition, in a push to expand affordable airpower options for modern battlefields. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Wednesday reviewed the new Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS) during a display of multi-domain autonomous systems in the Pentagon courtyard. The system, developed by Arizona-based defense contractor SpektreWorks, is aimed at delivering a flexible, attritable platform that can support distributed operations across the Indo-Pacific. SpektreWorks described LUCAS as “a reliable and cost-effective Group 3 Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) designed to perform in austere...