As the U.S.-Iran conflict enters its second month, America's Low-Cost Unmanned Combat Attack System, or LUCAS, is becoming increasingly visible across the Middle East theater, a sign that the Department of War has learned one critical lesson from both the Iranian drone playbook and the Ukraine-Russia war: cheap drones are the future of warfare.

The latest news on LUCAS comes from an unverifiable TikTok video, amplified on X, which appears to show a downed drone seized by Iraqi children who are reportedly trying to sell it.

If authentic, the footage is another reminder that low-cost drones are proliferating so widely across the region that they will likely spread to other parts of the world.

In a separate video reposted on X, Iranian forces appear to have recovered a LUCAS drone in the Persian Gulf area.

In the first week of the U.S.-Iran conflict, Iraqi civilians reportedly found an entirely intact LUCAS.

Our coverage on LUCAS:

Latest on combat drones:

And, of course, the massive security gap that has followed:

Next for these suicide drones is the integration of AI to fully automate the kill chain, as well as upgraded engines that will accelerate flight, allowing them to evade even some of the world's most advanced air defense systems.