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May 9, 2026 — Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy says it has captured a second US-made underwater drone in the Strait of Hormuz, claiming the vehicle was seized while conducting reconnaissance near the strategically vital waterway. The Pentagon has not confirmed the report.
Iranian state broadcaster IRIB cited an IRGC Navy statement saying the force detected a REMUS 600 uncrewed underwater vehicle and took control of it using intelligence capabilities and electronic warfare systems. The announcement was accompanied by video footage that appears to show a torpedo-shaped vessel on deck with Iranian naval personnel around it.
The IRGC said the vehicle has been handed over to Iranian specialists. According to the statement, the team is expected to examine the system and attempt to recover data from its onboard storage, including recorded routes, sonar returns and navigation parameters.
The US military has not publicly acknowledged losing a vehicle in the area. Washington has also not explained how the system could have been overpowered by Iranian forces. US officials often avoid discussing the details of underwater reconnaissance missions, and the footage released by Iran cannot be independently verified.
The REMUS 600 is a midrange autonomous underwater vehicle designed for both military and civilian operations. It was developed by Hydroid, a Massachusetts-based company with roots at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and has become one of the more widely recognized UUV platforms in service.
The vehicle is modular and can be fitted with different payloads depending on the mission. It can carry side-scan sonar, synthetic aperture sonar and oceanographic sensors, making it useful for seafloor mapping, mine detection and classification, reconnaissance, and underwater search operations.
The "600" refers to its maximum operating depth of about 600 meters. During missions, the UUV navigates autonomously with an inertial navigation system, a Doppler velocity log and acoustic positioning. Once it surfaces, it can obtain GPS fixes to refine its position.
According to Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution specifications cited by the US Navy, the REMUS 600 can stay operational for roughly 70 hours and cover up to 286 nautical miles. That range makes it suitable for long patrols in shallow, busy waters such as the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran's public statements suggest the main prize for Iranian military analysts is the data stored on the vehicle. Recorded routes and sonar imagery could potentially be used to map the seafloor, identify patterns in US underwater operations, and improve Iran's ability to detect or interfere with future UUV missions.
The practical value of that information, however, is unclear. Many US military UUVs are equipped with encryption and can be configured to wipe storage systems when tampering is detected. If those protections were active, Iranian specialists may recover only operational logs or system settings rather than sensitive intelligence.
This is not the first time Iran has claimed possession of an American underwater vehicle. In September, the IRGC Navy reported seizing a Dive-LD autonomous underwater vehicle built by Anduril near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz.
The Pentagon confirmed that earlier loss, but said the vehicle had malfunctioned before it fell into Iranian hands and that it did not contain classified equipment. The Dive-LD is a compact UUV used for a range of defense and research tasks, and its capture showed that Iranian forces were actively hunting US systems in the same waters where they have also confronted US naval vessels.
The incidents add to a longer cycle of maritime escalation between Tehran and Washington. In July, US Central Command used maritime one-way attack drones for the first time to strike Iranian military targets. That move highlighted how both sides are relying more heavily on unmanned systems to gain an advantage in crowded waters.
The Strait of Hormuz sits at the center of that competition. The waterway carries a large share of the world's seaborne oil, and any disruption to shipping there can quickly affect global energy markets. For the US Navy, the strait is a transit corridor between the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea and the wider Indian Ocean.
For Iran, the strait is a natural defensive chokepoint. The IRGC Navy has invested in fast patrol boats, anti-ship missiles, mines and electronic warfare tools that can be used to track or interfere with foreign military assets. Displaying a captured American UUV on state media gives Tehran a propaganda victory and sends a message to the Pentagon that its subsea surveillance is not untouchable.
The latest claim fits that pattern. Even if the vehicle was lost because of mechanical failure rather than Iranian interception, the IRGC gains from presenting itself as capable of hunting US systems. The video release is intended to shape public perception as much as to document a military operation.
The United States has not said whether it lost a REMUS 600 in the Strait of Hormuz, and no outside source has confirmed the Iranian account. Similar claims in the past have sometimes taken days or weeks to draw an official US response.
The episode is a reminder that autonomous underwater vehicles are becoming a regular part of naval operations in the Middle East. These systems allow the military to collect intelligence and inspect underwater infrastructure without risking sailors, but they also create new vulnerabilities. Small UUVs operated in shallow, heavily trafficked areas can be difficult to protect if they are detected.
Iran's handling of the captured vehicle may offer the clearest sign of what Tehran intends to do with it. Iranian technical teams have experience pulling information from a range of Western systems captured over the years, but modern encryption and tamper-proof software are making that harder.
For now, the Iranian claim stands as the latest point of friction in the Gulf. The strait remains one of the world's most guarded sea lanes, and the contest over underwater intelligence appears to be only intensifying.
