An advanced US underwater vehicle captured by IRGC forces near the Strait of Hormuz on Sept 8, 2026<\/p>\n
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy announced that it has successfully intercepted and captured a highly advanced, unmanned American underwater vehicle at the entrance of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.<\/strong><\/p>\n In a statement released on Tuesday, the IRGC Navy stated that the seizure was carried out in the early\u00a0hours of the day following a “complex intelligence and operational action.”<\/p>\n The unmanned submersible incorporates some of the world’s\u00a0most advanced underwater technology and was delivered to the US terrorist military in 2025, the statement said.<\/p>\n The IRGC announced that photographic evidence and detailed footage of the captured US asset would be released in the coming hours.<\/p>\n Iranian news agency Tasnim identified the captured system as a Dive-LD, an autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle developed by US defense technology company Anduril Industries and first delivered to the US Navy’s Unmanned Undersea Vehicle Group 1 in 2025.<\/p>\n The vehicle is approximately 5.8 meters long, has a diameter of about 1.2 meters and weighs roughly 2.7 tonnes.<\/p>\n Its published specifications include an endurance of up to 10 days underwater and a maximum operating depth of around 6,000 meters.<\/p>\n Designed as a modular autonomous platform, the Dive-LD can be configured for missions including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, seabed mapping, infrastructure inspection and mine-countermeasure operations.<\/p>\n The capture comes amid a sharp escalation between Iran and the United States over the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most strategically important maritime chokepoints.<\/p>\n The waterway has increasingly become a key arena in the US war on Iran, prompting Tehran to assert greater control over maritime activity in and around the strait.<\/p>\n Recent military exchanges have included US strikes on Iranian oil tankers and Iranian missile attacks targeting US naval forces.<\/p>\n On September 6, Iran said it had struck a US unmanned vessel attempting to enter a restricted area near Hormuz.<\/p>\n The capture of the unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) marks the latest in a long history of Iran intercepting and seizing advanced Western military technology.<\/p>\n Over the past decade, Iranian forces have successfully downed or captured numerous high-value US assets, including the RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone, MQ-9 Reaper drones, and various underwater gliders and surface vessels in the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n Reverse-engineering these captured technologies has historically played a significant role in accelerating Iran\u2019s domestic drone and unmanned naval programs.<\/p>\n