“He surrendered like a warrior…” Amritpal’s mother after Punjab Police arrested him in Moga

As American and Israeli strikes hammered Iran with Operation Epic Fury, US Central Command made a quiet but historic announcement: for the first time in history, the United States had deployed one-way attack drones in combat. The weapon was LUCAS the Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System and it is, by American admission, a reverse-engineered copy of Iran's own Shahed-136 loitering munition. The same class of drone Iran is currently using to strike Israeli cities and American bases across the Middle East. Five thousand kilometres east of the Persian Gulf, India is building its own answer. Bengaluru-based NewSpace Research and Technologies has developed the Sheshnaag-150, a 150-kilogram long-range collaborative attack drone named after the mythological serpent king, designed from the ground up for swarm warfare. With a range exceeding 1,000 kilometres, an endurance of over five hours, and a warhead of 25 to 40 kilograms, the Sheshnaag sits in the same conceptual category as the Shahed and LUCAS but with swarm coordination and mission versatility that arguably exceed both. Iran discovered that cheap, numerous and expendable weapons could defeat expensive and irreplaceable ones. Russia deployed that discovery at industrial scale in Ukraine. America, with LUCAS, has now joined the party. And India watching every Shahed barrage, watching LUCAS make its debut is building its answer on a test range outside Bengaluru.