Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its naval forces have captured an unmanned United States submarine near the Strait of Hormuz, as Tehran and Washington continue to exchange tit-for-tat attacks on ships to exert control over the crucial waterway that connects the Gulf and the Arabian Sea. Iranian state media identified the vessel as a Dive-LD – an autonomous underwater vehicle built by California-based defence firm Anduril Industries. The submersible, about six metres (20ft) long, is designed for long-duration missions such as surveillance, seabed mapping, and mine detection.
Washington insists that the vessel “had malfunctioned a day ago”. The US military, meanwhile, on Tuesday evening said it destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers in response to Iran’s attack on the US Navy warship with ballistic missiles. Escalating the situation further, Iran said it attacked two US vessels and eight oil tankers.
So, what do we know about Dive-LD and what does its capture mean for Iran? On Tuesday evening, the IRGC said in a statement that its naval forces have “trapped one of the most modern, intelligent, unmanned submarines of the terrorist US army at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz”. Without divulging specific details, the IRGC added it was a “complex intelligence and operational mastermind operation at dawn today”.
The US has yet to issue an official statement on the incident, but an unnamed Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to the news agency the loss of the submersible, which he said was sent to survey regional waters in support of ongoing operations. Dive-LD is a large, unmanned, autonomous underwater vehicle and a reusable platform designed to carry different sensor and mission packages. Anduril Industries, the submersible’s manufacturer, put its maximum depth at 6,000 metres (19,700ft) and endurance at up to 10 days.
It reportedly costs nearly $2.5m, according to US media reports. To put things in perspective, the OceanGate Titan submersible imploded near the Titanic’s wreck in June 2023 at a depth of some 3,346 metres (11,000ft) – nearly half of Dive-LD’s advertised depth. Anduril has confirmed the loss of one of its vessels but downplayed the significance of the incident.
On its website, Anduril says that Dive-LD possesses “open software, mechanical, and electrical interfaces [allowing] for seamless integration and rapid configuration of multiple payloads and sensors at a time”. The company says it can deliver “relevant, impactful, and affordable capability in weeks, not months or years, for missions to include: mine warfare; intelligence preparation of the operational environment; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; and precision placement”. Since the US attacked Iran in late February, joined by Israel, Tehran has faced devastating attacks over the months that began with the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
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