A Florida fishing charter boat recovered a delta-wing drone from the water near Eglin Air Force Base on Saturday, and the installation confirmed it recently lost a drone during a test but would not confirm it was the same aircraft.
Capt. Daniel Arsenault, with Hot Spots Charters, spotted the object at a distance and pulled it aboard with help from his passengers, according to charter captain Charlie Green, who shared images of the recovery. The drone closely resembles a clone of the Iranian Shahed-136, specifically the U.S. military’s Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS) target version built by SpecktreWorks and designated FLM-136. The recovered drone was missing its engine, propeller, and nose cone, which is common after water impacts, Green said.
An Eglin AFB spokesperson told The War Zone: “I can confirm that we were doing a test and the test article went down,” but declined to provide details on the type of drone, when it was lost, or where it went down. The spokesperson referred questions to the Pentagon, which could not immediately provide additional details. Green said Arsenault notified local agencies, and the drone was eventually collected by one of them, though he did not know which.
Eglin AFB is home to the 96th Test Wing, which oversees the Eglin Gulf Test Range, providing approximately 120,000 square miles of overwater airspace from the Florida panhandle to the Florida Keys, plus 724 square miles of land range with 70 test and training areas. The Air Force operates a handful of 120-foot boats, operated by a contracted crew from Florida Offshore, that recover around 100 drones each year from these waters.
The FLM-136 was originally designed to mimic one-way attack munitions, specifically the Shahed-136, for testing and training before being weaponized into LUCAS. LUCAS was used in combat for the first time on Feb. 28 during Operation Epic Fury. Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, a CENTCOM spokesperson, said in December that LUCAS costs approximately $35,000 per platform and provides “cutting-edge capabilities at a fraction of the cost of traditional long-range U.S. systems.”
This is not the first time a drone has washed ashore in Florida; in 2021, beachcombers in Palm Beach County found a U.S. Air Force BQM-167A target drone. The Eglin spokesperson did not say what happens next regarding the recovered drone or any investigation.
Sources: Defense One · Defence Blog