The United States is dominating the skies above Iran. But math is not necessarily on America’s side. Iran is using low-cost drones for precision attacks in the Middle East. The United States and its allies have air defense systems capable of intercepting a vast majority of Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, which are sophisticated yet costly.

The US and Iran are trading blows in the Gulf with a simple drone that costs as little as $50,000 to make. But why is a slow, cheap and relatively primitive drone seeing use in 2026 alongside hypersonic missiles and stealth jets?

Chair of joint chiefs of staff and others in classified meeting said Iran is trying to get US to spend its munitions

Struck by the success of large-scale, low-cost drone attacks, the US made covert efforts to capture Iranian Shahed-136s for technical analysis.

The new drones are called LUCAS, an acronym for Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS) drones. They are based in the Middle East.

The Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System, or LUCAS drone, is a one-way attack drone reverse-engineered after the Iranian Shahed-136.

The LUCAS drone, fired at Tehran on Saturday as part of U.S. strikes on Iran, is itself based on Iran’s Shahed-136 drone.

Iranian drones reportedly struck U.S. Embassy in Riyadh and Dubai consulate as defense expert Cameron Chell warns Tehran coordinates mass UAV attacks.

The Feb. 28 strikes saw the first combat use of the LUCAS, a near-copy of Iran’s cheap and effective Shahed-136.

The Pentagon’s Drone Dominance program aims to purchase more than 200,000 drones while expanding the U.S. small drone industrial base.

New developments in drone technology have led to increased capabilities on land, air, sea — including a new prototype that mimics a marine animal.

Iran's foreign minister threatened the United States following the sinking of an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, calling the attack an "atrocity. " "The US has perpetrated an atrocity at sea,