US Navy thwarts Iran's attempt to capture sea drone in Gulf
The seizure comes as the US Navy has increasingly deployed unmanned technology to help monitor weapons smuggling and other maritime activity in Middle Eastern waters.
The crew of a ship affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attached a cable to a US Navy unmanned maritime drone in the Persian Gulf on Monday night and attempted to tow it away, the US military said.
The IRGC Navy support ship Shahid Baziar later released the Saildrone after the US Navy coastal patrol ship USS Thunderbolt, an MH-60S Sea Hawk Helicopter and an inflatable US boat approached on the Iranian vessel in response.
Officers aboard the Thunderbolt made bridge-to-bridge contact with the IRGC Navy ship via radio, prompting its crew to untether the Saildrone, Cdr. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesperson for the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, told Al-Monitor.
“We made clear that the vessel they were towing was US government property and that we were closing [in] to retrieve it,” Hawkins told Al-Monitor, adding, “It was quite clear as to our intentions.”
