U.S. Military's Shahed-136 Kamikaze Drone Clone Is Getting Hivemind Swarming Capability
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U.S. Military’s Shahed-136 Kamikaze Drone Clone Is Getting Hivemind Swarming Capability
Shield AI is providing the software to unlock the combat-proven LUCAS's cooperative swarming potential, which could drastically increase its lethality.
By Thomas Newdick
Updated
May 21, 2026 3:02 PM EDT
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The U.S. military’s Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System, or LUCAS, the recently combat-proven long-range one-way attack drone designed for massed operations, will be equipped with Hivemind autonomy software from Shield AI. The company was selected for the integration effort by the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering (OUSW R&E) as part of an effort to bring AI-enabled swarming and autonomous teaming to LUCAS. The aim of incorporating swarming capabilities onto LUCAS, which is built by SpektreWorks, is something that officials told us about soon after the program broke cover.
The LUCAS program, developed by the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of War for Prototyping and Experimentation under OUSW R&E, is intended to field ‘affordable mass’ by producing large numbers of relatively low-cost drones that can be deployed in coordinated waves to saturate enemy defenses and expand strike capabilities at scale. Each LUCAS drone costs around $35,000, which is a fraction of the price of available missiles with similar range.
Based on the Iranian Shahed-136, LUCAS was used in combat for the first time when a large number of them were fired against Iranian targets in the opening salvos of Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. part of the joint U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran that began on February 28 of this year.
“LUCAS, indispensable,” U.S. Central Command boss Adm. Brad Cooper told TWZ when asked how effective the drones had been and how much they helped preserve magazine depth, given their comparatively low cost and faster and easier production.
Responding to a question from TWZ’s @haltman at a press conference at CENTCOM HQ in Tampa, the Admiral leading the war against Iran praised the LUCAS kamikaze drone: pic.twitter.com/H3Lu8jWaTu<br>— TWZ (@thewarzonewire) March 7, 2026
Meanwhile, the original Shahed-136, as well as Russian Geran-series developments of it, have rapidly become a signature weapon of the war in Ukraine, acting as Moscow’s primary standoff strike munition. For years now, Shaheds have led Russia’s campaign of bombardment against Ukrainian infrastructure and cities. While the Shahed has a range in excess of 1,000 miles, LUCAS, in its current configuration, is a bit smaller, with a range of around half that distance. A version of the current airframe used for the LUCAS program also serves in a target surrogate role for training and testing.
Under the new effort, Hivemind will act as an AI “pilot” for LUCAS, allowing groups of drones to coordinate movements, maneuver collaboratively, and adapt to changing battlefield conditions in real time. The effort will culminate in an operational demonstration this fall in which a single operator will direct a swarm of LUCAS drones, but initial flight tests with the software installed will take place before then, Shield AI told TWZ.
Speaking to TWZ at the annual SOF Week conference yesterday, Shield AI’s Brandon Tseng explained that much of the work on inserting the Hivemind AI pilot into LUCAS has already been proven by the company’s experiences working with Ukraine.
“LUCAS is a reflection of about two years’ worth of work with OUSW R&E, and a reflection of a lot of the work that we’re doing in Ukraine with one-way attack drones,” Tseng explained. “For the past several months, we’ve been shipping hundreds of AI pilots for one-way attack drones into Ukraine. Those drones have increased the probability of a kill. They have reduced [the] kill chain timeline, they have reduced the cost per effect, instead of, one out of every 10 of these one-way attack drones hitting their target, now they’re 10 out of 10 in terms of what we’re seeing, and it’s really about taking a lot of that development that we’ve done over in Ukraine and bringing it to a program like LUCAS to again increase probability of kill, reduce cost per effect, and increase probabilities of...