New Delhi: The US Central Command (CENTCOM) used one-way attack sea drones in combat for the first time Sunday, introducing an expendable maritime weapon into its ongoing campaign against Iran.
The weapon’s first operational use came as the US launched another wave of attacks against Iran Sunday evening, continuing days of renewed exchanges between the two countries. Iranian State media reported that one person was killed in southwestern Iran and four others injured.Within hours, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had struck US military bases in Kuwait, Jordan, and Bahrain, further escalating the confrontation across West Asia.
The renewed hostilities followed the breakdown of an already fragile ceasefire agreed on 17 June. Speaking Wednesday at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Turkey, US President Donald Trump stated that the truce was “over”.In a public release detailing Sunday’s operation and the weapons employed, the CENTCOM said, “U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) completed a new wave of offensive strikes against Iran, July 12, hitting dozens of targets at multiple locations with precision munitions to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international shipping flowing through the Strait of Hormuz.”The targets included Iranian air-defence systems, coastal radar installations, missile and drone capabilities, and small boats.According to CENTCOM, the operation combined “U.S. fighter aircraft, naval vessels, one-way attack aerial drones, and one-way attack sea drones for the first time.”Although armed and surveillance-oriented uncrewed vessels have increasingly become part of naval warfare, the CENTCOM announcement marks the first publicly acknowledged American combat use of a maritime drone designed not to return from its mission.What is a one-way attack sea drone?