Two aircraft carriers, hundreds of fighter jets, missiles and possibly suicide drones: Bloomberg reported that the Pentagon’s first unit dedicated to one-way attack drones could take part in a strike on Iran, if President Donald Trump ultimately orders such action. The U.S. outlet cited officials and analysis by American experts.
“Task Force Scorpion” evolved from an experimental U.S. Army drone unit, and U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said the force has since become operational.
“We established the squadron last year to rapidly equip our warfighters with new combat drone capabilities, capabilities that continue to evolve,” he said.
In a striking development, the United States, widely considered a global technology leader, developed the drones through reverse engineering based on Iran’s Shahed-136 unmanned aerial vehicle. The fact underscores that Washington is still seeking to close gaps after years in which Russia and Iran used suicide drones to strike targets, including in Ukraine, Bloomberg wrote.
The one-way attack drone unit is part of the largest U.S. force buildup in the Middle East in more than 20 years. One drone was successfully launched in a test in the Persian Gulf in mid-December from the deck of the amphibious transport dock USS Santa Barbara, one of the warships currently deployed to the region as part of the U.S. armada.
According to analyst Anna Miskelly, the deployment of the drones “signals a shift away from the U.S. military’s reliance on multimillion-dollar platforms such as the MQ-9 Reaper, which are increasingly difficult to justify in conflicts defined by swarms of drones.”
U.S. Central Command has estimated that Scorpion drones cost about $35,000 per unit and can be launched for one-way strike missions, reconnaissance and maritime attacks. “They have long range and are designed to operate autonomously,” officials said.
The drones carry an 18-kilogram payload and are not suited for striking fortified Iranian targets. However, according to analyst Bryan Clark, “such a force would be an effective way to attack soft targets such as missile production facilities, road networks and missile launch sites. Destroying targets of this kind requires numerous dispersed attacks, which low-cost drones are well suited to carry out.”