The Iranian-origin Shahed-class drones have featured prominently in the US-Iran war that began on February 28, 2026. However, these low-cost, one-way attack drones could have originated from three different sources — including Iran, Russia, and the USA.
The US launched “Operation Epic Fury” on February 28 against Iran, along with its partner and long-term ally, Israel.
The operation began with joint strikes on Iran’s military targets and senior political and IRGC officials and has since resulted in hundreds of strikes targeting Iran’s military infrastructure, including ballistic missiles, air defences, naval assets, command centres, and other facilities.
Notably, Iran has primarily relied on low-cost, long-range one-way attack drones for strikes in addition to the ballistic missiles.
The most well-known used by Iran in these operations are the infamous Shahed series drones, particularly the Shahed-136, which Russia has used extensively against the ongoing Ukraine conflict. Other drones in the class, including the Shahed-131, Shahed-129, and Shahed-238, have also been used, as per reports.
The Shahed-136 is a low-flying, slow-moving, GPS-guided explosive unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) intended for saturation attacks and overwhelming defences. Since the start of the conflict, Iran is said to have launched thousands of these drones on enemy targets.
Before this, the Shahed-class drones were earlier used by Iran during the ’12-day War’ with Israel in June 2025, as well as during previous attacks in April 2024 and October 2024, demonstrating the value placed on these low-cost drones for creating a massive price differential by forcing adversaries to use expensive interceptors to shoot them down.
Shahed-136 flies slowly, low to the ground, and has a low radar cross-section and heat signature.
With a range of up to 2,000–2,500 kilometres, the Shahed-136 drones can be used to target far away from Iranian territory or proxy launch points, including US bases spread out across the Gulf region as well as Tel Aviv, without risking manned aircraft or expensive ballistic or cruise missiles.
The drone also enjoys a clear cost advantage, as each unit costs around US$20,000 to US $50,000, whereas the air defence missiles used to intercept them often cost millions of dollars.
Although the USA has fielded counter-drone systems like the Merops drones against Iran, the number of Shahed-136 in Iran’s inventory is expected to exceed the 10,000 interceptor drones deployed by CENTCOM across a very large geographical region.
It is worth mentioning that each Shahed-136 is built with simple, dual-use commercial components, such as basic engines, fibreglass construction, and minimal electronics. It is also pertinent to note that, since the drone has a relatively simple design, it could be mass-produced in improvised facilities.
Russian & American “Shahed Drones” In West Asia
According to recent claims, there is a strong indication that Russia could be arming Iran with upgraded Shahed-136 drones for use in the ongoing war.
In 2023, Iran permitted Russia to produce these drones as part of a US$1.75 billion deal. Russia introduced substantial modifications to these drones, including changes to the engines, warheads, and even the colour. In its Russian iteration, these drones are called Geran-2 and are produced at the Alabuga drone factory, reportedly the world’s largest, as well as at an undisclosed facility in Izhevsk.
On March 15, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN that he has seen intelligence that “100 per cent” proves Iran has attacked US locations in West Asia using Shahed drones made in Russia with “Russian details.”
More recently, he told the Jerusalem Post in an interview that Moscow helped Iran improve its Shahed drones after first using his country as a testing ground. “We had a terrible experience with these drones,” Zelensky said in a remote video interview on March 16. “We had 350 or 500 Iranian drones, Shaheds, each day, each day and night.”
Explaining how Iran helped Russia use Shahed-136 against Ukraine, Zelenskyy said, “They gave licenses on production. And they created and helped them build two factories.”
When asked directly if Russia is currently providing Iran with improved Shahed drones or technical know-how in exchange, Zelenskyy quipped, “Yes, I’m sure,” without hesitation.
“We saw some details from one of the Shaheds, which was destroyed in one of the countries of the Middle East,” the Ukrainian President said. “I will not tell you, sorry, because we said that we would not tell publicly which country it was.” However, he added in the same breath, “We saw some details. It was Russian details. We know it because Iranians didn’t produce it.”
When asked if this implied that Russia had assisted Iran in developing the drones that are currently attacking targets in the region, Zelenskyy said, “I think that means that Russians also helped them, [just] like Iranians helped [the Russians] at the very beginning of the [Russia-Ukraine] war.”
Russia was known to have upgraded and equipped the Geran-2 (the Russian-produced Shahed-136) with electro-optical sensors. At the time, analysts said the Russians were equipping the kamikaze drones with cameras for visual reconnaissance, as explained in detail by the EurAsian Times.
Additionally, Russian upgrades made the drones more resistant to electronic warfare (EW), thanks to Chinese-developed CRPA (Controlled Reception Pattern Antennas) antennas installed within their fuselages.
Russian Shaheds have also been integrated with the R-60 air-to-air weapon as well as MANPADS, making them exponentially more lethal. There is, however, no indication that Tehran is also using a similarly modified and armed Shahed-136, but that possibility cannot potentially be ruled out in the future.
This creates a situation in which one Shahed trumps another’s capabilities.
However, in addition to Iran’s Shahed-136 and Russia’s Shahed-136, an American Shahed-136 is deployed to the battlefield in the ongoing war.
As reported by EurAsian Times earlier this month, the US has been proudly flaunting its LUCAS (Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System), a drone derived from Iran’s Shahed-136. “LUCAS is indispensable… This was an original Iranian drone design. We captured it, pulled the guts out, sent it back to America, put a little ‘Made in America’ on it, brought it back here, and we’re shooting it at the Iranians,” the US CENTCOM (Central Command) commander, Admiral Brad Cooper, recently said at a press conference on March 6, 2026.
While there has been no clarity on which targets LUCAS struck, some reports quoted the Commander as saying they were “good ones.”
LUCAS is based on a Shahed-136 that was captured a few years ago. It was unveiled by the US Department of Defence (DoD) in July 2025 at an exhibition attended by Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth. It is the culmination of an objective to develop cheap, one-way attack drones based on the experience in Ukraine.
Just like the drone it is derived from, LUCAS provides a much cheaper offensive alternative at just about $30,000 to $35,000 per unit and can also be readily scaled for use in a protracted conflict. It is a key component of the Pentagon’s “Drone Dominance” program to combat low-cost threats from countries like Iran, Russia, and China since it is lighter, more flexible, and integrated with a cutting-edge US network system.
LUCAS essentially turns the script by using Iran’s design against it, giving priority to swarm tactics, autonomy, and low cost above expensive, precision weaponry like cruise missiles or the MQ-9 Reaper UAV.
It is a small, fixed-wing, delta-wing drone designed for terminal dives and long-range loitering. It meets or exceeds key parameters while being substantially lighter than the Shahed-136. It is about 10 feet in length, 8 feet in wingspan, and has a takeoff weight of about 82 kilograms. It can carry an 18-kilogram payload and loiter for up to six hours.
Its open architecture and modular design support a variety of payloads, such as explosive warheads, electronic warfare modules, and reconnaissance sensors, making it adaptable to a broad range of mission scenarios.
In fact, LUCAS is more cost-effective than the Shahed-136 because it can be reused in various configurations, including reconnaissance missions.
The American Shahed-like drone supports a variety of payloads, runs on 28V and 12V power supplies, and has been designed to overwhelm defences through sheer numbers rather than individual survivability.
Therefore, by deploying the LUCAS in combat against Iran, the United States has further complicated the battlefield calculus and created a true “Shahed vs Shahed” situation—one whose result will only be determined once the war is over and the damage done by either drone is properly assessed.
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