Eglin AFB Lost Drone Resurfaces Off Florida Coast

“I can confirm that we were doing a test and the test article went down,” an Eglin AFB spokesperson told TWZ, declining to say what kind of drone or precisely where it went down.

The catch: a fishing charter, a drone, and a mahi-mahi

On a Saturday excursion near Eglin Air Force Base, a Hot Spots Charters boat pulled a delta-wing uncrewed aerial vehicle from the water. Charlie Green, a local charter captain and aviation photographer, said Capt. Daniel Arsenault spotted the object at a distance, investigated, and hauled it aboard with the help of his passengers — who also recovered a “good size mahi-mahi” that had been sheltering underneath the drone. Images shared by Green show the airframe missing its engine, propeller and nose cone/seeker; the reporting notes that losing those components is common for impacts into water. Arsenault and his company notified local agencies and the drone was eventually collected by one of them, Green said; he did not know which agency made the collection.

What the recovered airframe resembles: FLM-136, Shahed-136, and LUCAS

The recovered delta-wing closely resembles a clone of the Iranian Shahed-136 one-way attack weapon — specifically the U.S. target version designated the FLM-136. According to the reporting, the FLM-136 was built by SpecktreWorks and originally designed to mimic one-way attack munitions, reverse engineered from the Shahed-136, for testing and training purposes. That target design was later weaponized into the U.S. military’s Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS), which was used in combat for the first time during Operation Epic Fury on Feb. 28.

Capabilities and operational details tied to LUCAS and TFSS

The piece quotes Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, a CENTCOM spokesperson, on LUCAS’ attributes and cost: “Costing approximately $35,000 per platform, LUCAS is a low-cost, scalable system that provides cutting-edge capabilities at a fraction of the cost of traditional long-range U.S. systems.” CENTCOM added in a press release that LUCAS drones “have an extensive range and are designed to operate autonomously,” can operate beyond line of sight, and “can be launched with different mechanisms to include catapults, rocket-assisted takeoff, and mobile ground and vehicle systems.” The drones have been deployed by Task Force Scorpion Strike (TFSS), the military’s one-way attack drone unit established under CENTCOM, which falls under U.S. Special Operations Command Central (SOCCENT).

Eglin AFB, the 96th Test Wing, and recovery resources

The host unit at Eglin is the 96th Test Wing, described on the wing’s homepage as the “test and evaluation center for Air Force air-delivered weapons, navigation and guidance systems, command and control systems, and Air Force Special Operations Command systems.” The wing oversees the Eglin Gulf Test Range, which the reporting says provides about 120,000 square miles of overwater airspace covering the eastern third of the Gulf of Mexico from the Florida panhandle to the Florida Keys, and a 724-square-mile land range with 70 specific test and training areas.

The Air Force also operates a handful of 120-foot boats — the only vessels in the service — to help recover drones after they are shot down during live-fire exercises or otherwise need retrieval from the waters off Florida. Those boats, operated by a contracted crew from Florida Offshore, retrieve around 100 drones each year, the reporting says.

What this means for local mariners, Eglin range managers, and CENTCOM/TFSS

• Local mariners and charter operators: The Hot Spots Charters crew reportedly “did all the due diligence possible to notify local agencies” after recovery. When unexpected debris or test articles wash up or are found at sea, mariners will continue to be the first witnesses and initial collectors of evidence for authorities.
• 96th Test Wing and range managers at Eglin: The wing manages vast overwater and land ranges that are used to develop and test weapons and counter-unmanned aerial system capabilities. The confirmation that “the test article went down” underscores the practical need for active recovery plans and interagency notification when test articles enter public waters.
• CENTCOM, TFSS, and weapon developers: LUCAS is described as a low-cost, autonomous system that can be launched in multiple ways and is being developed to operate cooperatively in swarms. Losses — whether in training ranges or in conflict — are a known part of operating large numbers of expendable systems, and recoveries can provide material for analysis and further development.

Precedents and ongoing development

The reporting places this recovery in a pattern: in 2021, beachcombers in Palm Beach County found a U.S. Air Force BQM-167A high-performance target drone that washed ashore. The article also notes that even during the recent war with Iran, multiple LUCAS drones were lost and found intact. Development work connected to countering these threats has also run through Eglin: the base featured tests of air-to-air APKWS laser-guided rockets and has been linked to programs arming USAF fighters with FALCO APKWS to shoot down similar threats. LUCAS development continues, with cooperative swarm features identified as central to the program’s vision and currently being worked on.

Though the Eglin spokesperson would not confirm whether the hull pulled from the Gulf is the same drone the base acknowledged losing, the facts on record are straightforward: a test article went down, a charter crew recovered a delta-wing airframe and notified authorities, and the recovered hardware resembles an FLM-136-style target that shares lineage with the Shahed-136 and the weaponized LUCAS family. As the original reporting put it, the Hot Spots Charters crew “will always have a good tale about the one that didn’t get away.”

Source: TWZ — Shahed-136 Clone Found By Florida Fisherman, Eglin AFB Admits It Lost A Drone