Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has claimed it captured a US unmanned underwater vehicle near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, calling it one of the most advanced systems operated by the US military.
Iranian state media identified the vessel as the Dive-LD, an autonomous underwater vehicle manufactured by California-based defence technology company Anduril Industries. The IRGC Navy described the submarine as a “prize” now in Iranian possession.
The US military, however, disputed the significance of the incident. A Pentagon spokesperson said the underwater drone had malfunctioned more than a day before Iran announced the seizure and had been surveying regional waters as part of ongoing US operations.
The defective vehicle was an older Dive-LD model and “neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar equipment”, the spokesperson said.
What is Dive-LD?
The Dive-LD is a roughly 5.8-metre (19-foot) autonomous underwater vehicle weighing about three tonnes. According to Anduril, the underwater drone can operate for up to 10 days without requiring it to return to base and can dive to depths of around 6,000 metres (19,700 feet).
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Its modular design allows it to carry different sensors and payloads. Its stated missions include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, mine countermeasures, seabed mapping and inspection of underwater infrastructure such as cables and pipelines.
Why does it matter?
US defence officials have been investing heavily in autonomous underwater and surface systems to monitor large areas, gather intelligence and track adversary vessels without exposing sailors to danger.
Anduril confirmed that one of its Dive-LD vessels had been lost but played down the military significance of its capture.
“Dive-LD is an attritable autonomous system,” an Anduril spokesperson said, meaning the vehicle was designed to operate in dangerous environments where losing the system was considered an expected possibility.
The company said the vessel had already delivered significant value during thousands of hours of operations in the US Central Command area.
The US Navy began receiving Dive-LD systems in 2025, with the vehicles being used by its unmanned undersea units. Anduril is also supplying the Navy with the larger Dive-XL system, which shares design characteristics with Australia’s Ghost Shark autonomous submarine.
