Videos purport to show first combat use of US-made one-way attack drones

Multiple videos emerging from the US military action in Venezuela include what sound like one-way attack drones.

If they were employed, it would likely be the first time they've been used in combat by the American military.

Footage from Ukraine shows how Iranian-designed Shahed drones make a whine from the pusher propeller engines they use as they fly overhead.

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Drones used – but were they Shaheds?

Speaking after the US operation in Caracas, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, said the US had employed "numerous remotely piloted drones".

He said these had dismantled Venezuelan air defences by "employing weapons to ensure the safe passage of helicopters into the target area".

This drone reference could refer to surveillance drones such as the rarely caught RQ-170, seen landing in Puerto Rico after the mission.

But the weapons reference could also mean GPS-guided kamikaze drones.

In December, the US displayed a new system in the Persian Gulf called the Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System, or Lucas.

The Lucas attack drone, which is referred to as the FLM 136 by manufacturer SpektreWorks, closely resembles an Iranian Shahed drone and its Russian copy, the Shahed 136.

The United States operates Lucas drones in the Middle East.

These systems are game-changers because they're simple, expendable and avoid risking a pilot's life.