0
An unmanned U.S. underwater vehicle that Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps announced it seized at an undisclosed location in Iran near the entrance of the Strait of Hormuz on the 8th (local time). / Reuters, Yonhap

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Sept. 8 local time that it had seized a US military unmanned underwater vehicle in the Strait of Hormuz. The United States confirmed that the equipment belonged to its military but said it had already been malfunctioning for more than a day and was not carrying any classified equipment.

According to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency and other outlets, the IRGC Navy said in a statement that it had seized a US military unmanned underwater vehicle during an intelligence and military operation near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz.

Sepah News, a media outlet affiliated with the IRGC, identified the seized equipment as the Dive-LD, an autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle, or UUV, developed by US defense technology company Anduril Industries. The IRGC described it as a “cutting-edge smart unmanned submarine equipped with the latest underwater technology.” It also said the vehicle had originally been scheduled for delivery to the US military last year.

The US, however, gave a different account. A Pentagon spokesperson told Reuters that the unmanned underwater vehicle had malfunctioned more than a day before Iran made its announcement. At the time, the vehicle had been surveying nearby waters in support of US military operations in the region, the spokesperson said.

US Central Command spokesperson Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins also told the Associated Press that Anduril’s Dive-LD had malfunctioned more than a day earlier and that the US military was no longer in possession of the vehicle.

The US military stressed in particular that the vehicle did not contain militarily sensitive technology. Hawkins said it was an older model that had malfunctioned, was not collecting sensitive information and was not equipped with classified sonar or radar systems. He added that the US was not concerned because the vehicle was based on a commercially available configuration.

The two sides therefore offered conflicting accounts of how the unmanned underwater vehicle ended up in Iranian hands. Iran claims it seized a cutting-edge US military underwater drone through an intelligence and military operation, while the US says it was an older model that had already been malfunctioning for more than a day. Reuters said it could not independently verify Iran’s claim that it had seized the vehicle.

		0
A cartoon mocking the seizure of an advanced U.S. unmanned underwater vehicle, posted on social media by Iran's chief negotiator. / Capture from X

The Dive-LD is an autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle measuring about 5.8 meters in length and weighing around 3 metric tons. According to its manufacturer, Anduril, it can dive to depths of up to 6,000 meters and conduct missions autonomously for up to 10 days without returning to base.

The manufacturer, Anduril, also confirmed the loss of one Dive-LD unit. Anduril explained that the equipment is an autonomous unmanned system specifically engineered to account for the possibility of loss during operations in hazardous environments.

Iran is also leveraging this incident for anti-U.S. propaganda. A spokesperson for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed, "Even a state-of-the-art unmanned submarine could not evade our multi-layered surveillance network deployed across the Strait of Hormuz."

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran's parliament and head of the war termination negotiation team, also posted a cartoon on X (formerly Twitter) mocking the seizure of the U.S. military's unmanned underwater vehicle. The illustration depicts an arm in a uniform bearing the Iranian flag tapping on an unmanned submarine surfacing above the water, accompanied by captions stating: "It seems the U.S. military's most modern intelligent unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) received a knock from the Revolutionary Guard Navy," "Knock! Knock!", and "Knocked out!"

                                                                                                            Nam Mi-kyung