Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Tuesday that they had seized a US unmanned submarine near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, an incident that offers an unusual look at the growing role of underwater drones in military operations.
According to Iranian state media, the captured vessel was a Dive-LD, a large autonomous underwater vehicle made by Anduril, the California-based defense technology company.
The 19-foot submersible is designed for a range of missions, including mine countermeasures, seabed mapping, intelligence collection and inspections of critical underwater infrastructure such as cables and pipelines, according to the company.
“We trapped one of the most modern, intelligent and unmanned submarines of the terrorist American army at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz. This submersible is equipped with the latest technologies,” the Revolutionary Guards Navy said in a statement reported by Iranian state media.
A Pentagon spokesperson, responding to the Iranian claim, said an underwater drone had “malfunctioned more than a day ago.”
“It was surveying regional waters in support of ongoing operations. The defective drone was an older model that neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar equipment,” the spokesperson said.
Anduril acknowledged that one of its vessels had been lost, while seeking to minimize the broader significance of the episode.
“Dive-LD is an attritable autonomous system, meaning it is designed from the outset to operate in dangerous environments where loss of the vehicle is an expected possibility,” a company spokesperson said.
The US military is investing heavily in unmanned naval systems, including underwater and surface vessels, as it seeks cheaper ways to monitor vast areas of ocean, gather intelligence and track adversary ships and submarines without putting sailors at risk.
According to Anduril’s website, Dive-LD can operate for up to 10 days without returning to base and is designed to dive to depths of as much as 19,700 feet.
Dive-LD units cost about $2.5 million each, US military news site DefenseScoop reported in 2024.
