Iran has seized a US submarine drone near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian state media cited by Reuters. The seized vehicle is the Dive-LD, a large autonomous underwater vehicle built by California-based defense company Anduril.
According to the company, the 19-foot (5.8-meter) submersible can be used to detect and neutralize sea mines, map the seabed, gather intelligence and inspect underwater infrastructure such as cables and pipelines.
In a statement carried by Iranian state media, the Revolutionary Guard’s navy said, “At the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, we captured one of the most advanced, intelligent and unmanned submarines of the ‘terrorist’ American forces. This underwater vehicle is equipped with cutting-edge technology.”
In response to Iran’s claim, a Pentagon spokesperson said an underwater drone had gone offline more than a day earlier.
The Pentagon spokesperson said the drone had been monitoring regional waters in support of ongoing military operations. The disabled drone was an older model with no sensitive data-collection capability and no radar equipment, the spokesperson said.
Anduril also confirmed the loss of one of its vehicles, though the company downplayed the significance of the incident.
An Anduril spokesperson said, “Dive-LD is an ‘attritable’ autonomous system. That means it’s built with operation in hazardous environments in mind, where the possibility of losing the vehicle is expected.”
The US military is investing heavily in unmanned underwater and surface vessels for wide-area maritime surveillance, intelligence gathering, and detecting adversary warships and submarines, aiming to carry out such missions at relatively low cost without putting sailors at risk.
According to Anduril’s website, the Dive-LD can operate underwater for up to 10 days without returning to base and is designed to dive to depths of up to 6,000 meters (19,700 feet). A 2024 report by US military trade publication DefenseScoop said each Dive-LD costs about $2.5 million.