US forces struck a submarine and ship maintenance facility in Iran using kamikaze drone boats in an operational first amid renewed hostilities around the Strait of Hormuz.
Central Command said on Monday that it had “degraded Iran’s ability to continue attacking commercial shipping” with strikes on the port at Bandar Abbas naval base.
Footage shared by Centcom showed three Corsair unmanned surface vessels speeding into jetties, causing huge explosions and smoke to billow over the port.
They said it marked the first time that US forces have employed sea drones in combat operations. The Corsair, developed by Texas-based Saronic in 2022, carries up to 1,000lbs of payload at speeds of over 35 knots.
The same type of vessel was used to pick up an Apache helicopter crew that went down near the coast of Oman last month, as reported by The Hill.
Iran has routinely employed layers of ‘fast-attack ships’, naval drones and mines to undermine US operations at sea through the war, which began with US and Israeli strikes in February.
As early as March, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said that Washington had asked Kyiv for help in fighting swarms of Iranian drones, reflecting the changing shape of modern warfare.
With no sign of the war ending soon, the US military carried out a third night of strikes against Iran on Monday as president Donald Trump reinstated a blockade of Iranian shipping.
Trump also said the US would probably take over the Strait of Hormuz and should be reimbursed for guarding it. He told Fox News the US would become “the guardian of the strait” and “we should reimbursed for that”.
Iran’s IRGC said it had targeted US military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait, destroyed radar systems in Oman and hit fuel tanks and ammo depots in Jordan on Monday in response to American strikes.
Both sides are ostensibly halfway through a 60-day period for negotiations aimed at resolving a long-running dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme and end the war for good.
But Trump formally notified lawmakers over the weekend that the nation is at war with Iran again, giving his administration another 60 days to use the military without congressional approval.
US Centcom said on Tuesday that there are now more than 50,000 service members deployed across the Middle East.
Trump said last week he believes the ceasefire with Iran is “over”, accusing the regime of attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz, while apparently leaving open the prospect of talks.
Both sides remain at an impasse over control of the Strait of Hormuz, not resolved by the Memorandum of Understanding to end the hot conflict to allow for talks.
