Iran Escalates Drone Hunt, Targeting US Spy Tech Secrets

Iran is intentionally targeting U.S. naval drones in the Strait of Hormuz to collect intelligence on American surveillance systems and develop ways to bypass U.S. defenses, drone specialists said Tuesday.

The campaign appears coordinated, experts said, allowing Tehran to study U.S. Navy operations in one of the world’s most strategically vulnerable maritime chokepoints—even when no classified information is exposed.

The assessment followed a Sept. 14 escalation in the Gulf, when the U.S. military destroyed two Iranian small boats during an attempted Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seizure of an American unmanned surface vessel patrolling the Strait, according to reports.

Iranian state media initially described the episode as a U.S. attack on civilian fishing boats. Iranian officials also said search-and-rescue teams were operating off Kargan and near Larak Island, claiming that local fishermen were missing.

Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), confirmed the attempted seizure Tuesday.

“Iranian small boats recently attempted to take possession of a U.S. unmanned surface vessel, but they were unsuccessful after CENTCOM forcefully responded,” Hawkins said.

“The surface drone remains under U.S. operational control.”

Cameron Chell, CEO of U.S. drone maker Draganfly, told News Outlet that the activity in the Strait points to a deliberate Iranian intelligence effort. “When we see all these types of intel capture missions Iran is launching, we need to make no mistake: These are very coordinated, absolutely deliberate drone capture missions,” he said.

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Chell said even a short inspection of a captured drone could deliver Tehran valuable information about U.S. surveillance practices and potential countermeasures.

“If Iran captures a drone, it could give them an immediate tactical advantage,” Chell said.

“It may not yield specific classified data, but it gives insight into the theater of operations, which at any given moment offers an advantage. I wouldn’t doubt it for a heartbeat that it is escalating.”

He added that seemingly minor details could help Iran build a broader picture of U.S. activity, informing “different attack plans, battle plans, and thoughts on what the U.S. might be doing.” Chell said he would be “very surprised” if the effort were not continuing.

Iran’s attempts to capture drones underscore growing security volatility in the Strait of Hormuz, the vital international shipping lane where commercial transit has fallen below historic levels since the war broke out in February.

Chell emphasized that any access to captured hardware over the last six months would allow Iranian forces to evaluate sensitive onboard sensors.

“It really speaks to the bigger picture of how the whole intelligence infrastructure works of, say, the Navy, for example,” Chell said.

“The other important thing is that when they get their hands on these drones—even if they’re only able to spend some time glimpsing at them before they have to evacuate or abort a mission—is they get a real understanding of the types of sensors on them.”

“That gives them a complete picture of how they can launch attacks and evade the type of sensing equipment out there,” Chell continued.

“They can understand how to counter or measure the intelligence being gathered, and potentially use that design offensively in their own equipment.”

The latest escalation also follows a Sept. 8 incident involving Iran’s capture of a Dive-LD autonomous underwater drone manufactured by defense contractor Anduril.

While Anduril CEO Palmer Luckey said the drone was designed to operate in “environments too dangerous for humans where capture is an expected possibility.”

“I can’t get into the details, but it provided significant value for months before capture,” Luckey dded.

“Unboxing ceremony by our reverse engineers, tomorrow morning!” Iran’s embassy in Hyderabad also wrote on X.

U.S. Navy representatives however, said the recovered drone was an older model that had malfunctioned and gone dead in the water.

“The U.S. being alert to the fact that these are high-value targets dictates where and how they use and protect them,” Chell noted.

“I don’t doubt that the captured underwater drone had sensitive information on it, but that’s not the point. Again, the point is, they want to see the type of equipment and information being gathered, or view logs to see where it has been. This all just puts the U.S. on higher alert.”

Tehran has previously leveraged captured U.S. assets—including an RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone seized in 2011—to bolster domestic technology and regional propaganda.

Then-President Barack Obama publicly asked Tehran to return the aircraft. Iran later claimed it reverse-engineered the platform to build domestic lookalikes.

In 2022, a U.S. Navy patrol ship and an MH-60S Seahawk helicopter intercepted an Iranian naval vessel attempting to tow a Saildrone surface vessel in the Gulf.

“Iran actually has a history of attempting this in the past, and at times has been successful,” Chell said, noting Washington takes the threat “very, very seriously.”

“In other instances where they’ve gotten sail ship drones, for example, and tried to bring them into Iranian territory—” Chell said, pointing back to the RQ-170 seizure: “a number of Iranian drones look suspiciously like the RQ line.”

“Still, when the U.S. knows a drone has been captured, they adjust their tactics and operational overview accordingly,” Chell, whose firm has been awarded a five-year contract by the Government of Canada to provide low-cost tactical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance uncrewed aircraft systems to the Canadian Armed Forces, concluded.

“There is no question that autonomy and unmanned systems are the new standard in warfare,” Chell said.