Horowitz: LUCAS, a Shahed-136 clone, becomes indispensable in war

Michael Horowitz, a former Pentagon official who pushed for the LUCAS drone program, says the United States has turned a Shahed-136-style kamikaze drone concept into an “indispensable” wartime tool. His remarks focus on how the program started and where it could go next as militaries increasingly rely on attrition and mass drone effects.

Michael Horowitz, who backed the LUCAS drone program at the Pentagon, argues that the United States has effectively replicated the Shahed-136 kamikaze-drone approach—and that it has rapidly become “indispensable” in war. His core message is that LUCAS moved from a concept to a practical centerpiece of modern combat demand.

Horowitz’s account links LUCAS’s origin to Pentagon advocacy, placing the program’s push and political momentum at the center of its early development. The thrust of the reporting is not a battlefield update with new strike details, but an institutional origin story tied to how U.S. defense planning adapted to an evolving drone environment.

Strategically, Horowitz’s framing underscores how kamikaze drones now sit inside kill-chain assumptions rather than acting as a niche weapon. If a Shahed-136 clone is treated as “indispensable,” that signals a shift toward durable procurement pipelines, faster iteration cycles, and doctrines built around persistent pressure and attrition.

Technically, the discussion centers on LUCAS as a Shahed-136-style kamikaze drone clone, with Horowitz offering insight into the program’s genesis and its prospective future direction. The reporting described here emphasizes development and trajectory more than it provides specific payload, engine, or production numbers.

Looking ahead, the key implication is that the United States will likely continue building out the ecosystem around this class of drone, including integration with existing sensor and targeting workflows. Horowitz’s “indispensable” label also raises the stakes for cost, scale, and survivability—because a weapon treated as essential will attract sustained resources and operational expectations.