The US Central Command (Centcom) revealed the use of unprecedented weapons in the strikes it carried out against Iran, announcing for the first time the involvement of unidirectional attack drones and unmanned attack boats in military operations.
The US Central Command (Centcom) announced that it used, for the first time, unidirectional attack drones (suicide) and unidirectional attack drone boats in the strikes it launched against Iran, on Sunday.
The command did not clarify, in its statement, the type of these drones or the number of each category that participated in the attacks.
American attack drones saw their first use in the early stage of the war with Iran, when the US Central Command deployed the Low-Cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS), a version that mimics the Iranian Shahed-136 drones, which Russia used extensively in the war in Ukraine.
Central Command said in a post on social media at the time: “These low-cost drones, inspired by the Iranian Shahid drones, are now carrying out American retaliatory strikes.”
Regarding the drone boats, the former director of the Joint Intelligence Center of the US Pacific Command, Karl Schuster, explained that the United States was conducting experiments on several types of them.
Schuster said, in a statement to CNN, “The most suitable one for carrying out unidirectional attacks is the Fleet-class USV.”
He added that these boats were designed mainly for anti-mine or anti-submarine missions, but their speed exceeding 40 miles per hour makes it possible to adapt them to carry out one-directional attacks.
He pointed out that the cost of one boat exceeds $2 million, stressing that it will be “difficult to stop,” noting that the USV-class unmanned boats and LUCAS aerial drones were designed to be launched from coastal combat ships of the US Navy.
