The U.S. military used one-way attack surface drones in a recent attack against Iran, marking the Americans’ first use of the system in combat.Specifically, the military used three Corsair unmanned surface vessels to hit a submarine and ship maintenance facility at the port at Bandar Abbas Naval Base, U.S. Central Command said on Monday.“Three Corsair unmanned surface vessels hit the port at Bandar Abbas Naval Base, marking the first time American forces have employed sea drones in combat operations. Last night’s strikes degraded Iran’s ability to continue attacking commercial shipping,” CENTCOM said in a statement.

Yesterday, using multiple one-way attack surface drones, CENTCOM forces successfully struck a submarine and ship maintenance facility in Iran. Three Corsair unmanned surface vessels hit the port at Bandar Abbas Naval Base, marking the first time American forces have employed sea… pic.twitter.com/bOM2kmgRxz— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) July 13, 2026

The Corsair, made by Saronic, is a 24-foot autonomous boat with a range of 1,000 nautical miles, can top out at 35 knots an hour, and can carry a 1,000-pound payload.The same type of drone boat was also involved in the rescue of two Army Apache helicopter pilots who had to make an emergency landing in the Arabian Sea last month.The United States has also used aerial drones for both offensive and defensive operations in ways previously unseen from the American military, which is important because it had been on the wrong end of the cost curve. Previously, the U.S. relied on very expensive air defense systems, in which missile interceptors alone cost millions of dollars each to shoot down incoming drones that often cost only tens of thousands of dollars to produce.TRUMP SAYS US WILL RESTART IRANIAN BLOCKADE AS MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING CRUMBLESThe Low-Cost Unmanned Combat Attack System, or LUCAS drone, is a reverse-engineered one-way drone that mimics the Iranian Shahed-136 drone.“Those days of using high value defenses to shoot down cheap targets are behind us. What we have been doing lately is using our own low cost one-way attack drones,” CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said in May.Earlier on in the conflict, he said, “As many of you know, and if you don’t know, this was an original Iranian drone design. We captured it, pulled the guts out, sent it back to America, put a little made in America on it, brought it back here, and we’re shooting it at the Iranians.”