SpektreWorks
Phoenix engineering firm behind LUCAS, the US military's low-cost Shahed-class one-way attack drone.
SpektreWorks is a Phoenix, Arizona engineering firm that specialises in unmanned systems development and production. Founded in 2018, it spent years building threat-emulation and target drones — including the FLM-136, a Shahed-136 -class drone used to train air defenders against the Iranian design — before that work turned into a fielded weapon.
That weapon is LUCAS, the Low-cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System: a long-range one-way attack drone reverse-engineered from the captured Shahed airframe and rebuilt around American electronics and guidance. CENTCOM has put its cost at roughly $35,000 a unit. Unveiled publicly in July 2025, LUCAS moved into operational service within months and saw its first confirmed combat use in early 2026 — a pace that made SpektreWorks a case study in fast-tracked defence acquisition.
In May 2026 the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering selected Shield AI to integrate its Hivemind autonomy onto LUCAS, adding AI-piloted swarming to the platform. SpektreWorks remains the airframe maker; Shield AI supplies the autonomy layer.
- Stack
- low-cost-manufacturing
- autonomous-navigation
Products
Drones
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LUCAS
Low-cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System — a long-range one-way attack drone reverse-engineered from the Iranian Shahed-136; first US combat use in 2026.
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FLM-136
Shahed-class target / threat-emulation drone for air-defence training; the platform LUCAS evolved from.
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LUCAS
Low-cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System — a ~$35,000 long-range one-way attack drone reverse-engineered from Iran's Shahed-136, set to fly under Shield AI's Hivemind autonomy.
Introduced 2025 · Updated 2026
Sources
- spektreworks.com/about/ (2026-06-20) — Official "About" page — Phoenix, Arizona engineering firm specialising in unmanned systems development and production; lists the FLM-series threat-emulation drones.
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-cost_Uncrewed_Combat_Attack_System (2026-06-20) — Encyclopedic entry on LUCAS — names SpektreWorks as developer, Shahed-136 reverse-engineering origin, $35,000 unit cost, July 2025 reveal, and 2026 first combat use.
- shield.ai/shield-ai-selected-to-bring-ai-powered-swarming-to-lucas-kamikaze-drone-program/ (2026-06-20) — Shield AI press release (May 2026) — OUSW R&E selected Shield AI to integrate Hivemind autonomy onto LUCAS.
- medium.com/the-opc-ledger/the-35-000-revolution-how-a-phoenix-startup-reverse-engineered-irans-drone-and-changed-american-75405cbac72f (2026-06-20) — Long-form profile — SpektreWorks founded 2018, Phoenix startup, eight-month path from reverse-engineering to combat deployment.