TEHRAN — Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Tuesday said they seized an American submarine drone in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has blockaded in the months-long Middle East war.Iranian state media said the vessel was a Dive-LD, a ​large autonomous underwater vehicle built by California defense firm Anduril. The 19-foot (5.8-meter) ⁠submersible can carry out missions including mine countermeasures, seabed mapping, intelligence gathering and the ​inspection of underwater infrastructure such as cables and pipelines, the company has said.“The IRGC naval forces captured one of the most modern, unmanned, and smart submarines of the US terrorist army at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz in a complex intelligence and operational action at dawn today,” the Guards said in a statement carried by state TV.“This smart submarine is equipped with the latest technology in the subsurface field in the world, which was delivered to the US terrorist army fleet in 2025,” the statement added.“This submarine has now been captured and images of it will be released in the coming hours.”Iranian media reported that the unmanned underwater vehicle’s main capabilities included “subsurface reconnaissance and surveillance, seabed mapping, mine detection and inspection of submarine cables and pipelines.”A Pentagon spokesperson said an ​underwater drone had "malfunctioned more than a day ago.""It was surveying regional waters in support of ongoing operations. ‌The ⁠defective drone was an older model that neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar equipment," the spokesperson said.Anduril confirmed the loss of one of its vessels, but downplayed the significance of the incident."Dive-LD is an attritable autonomous system, meaning it ​is designed from the ​outset to operate ⁠in dangerous environments where loss of the vehicle is an expected possibility," a company spokesperson said.The US military is investing heavily in ​unmanned naval systems, including underwater and surface vessels, as it seeks ​cheaper ways ⁠to monitor vast areas of ocean, gather intelligence and track adversary ships and submarines without putting sailors at risk.According to Anduril's website, Dive-LD can operate for up to 10 days ⁠without returning ​to base and is designed to dive to depths ​of as much as 6,000 metres (19,700 feet). Dive-LD units cost about $2.5 million each, US military news site DefenseScoop ​reported in 2024.