Has Iran captured an unmanned US submarine? What we know

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its naval forces have captured an unmanned United States submarine near the Strait of Hormuz, as Tehran and Washington continue to exchange tit-for-tat attacks on ships to exert control over the crucial waterway that connects the Gulf and the Arabian Sea.

Iranian state media identified the vessel as a Dive-LD – an autonomous underwater vehicle built by California-based defence firm Anduril Industries. The submersible, about six metres (20ft) long, is designed for long-duration missions such as surveillance, seabed mapping, and mine detection.

Washington insists that the vessel “had malfunctioned a day ago”.

The US military, meanwhile, on Tuesday evening said it destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers in response to Iran’s attack on the US Navy warship with ballistic missiles. Escalating the situation further, Iran said it attacked two US vessels and eight oil tankers.

So, what do we know about Dive-LD and what does its capture mean for Iran?

On Tuesday evening, the IRGC said in a statement that its naval forces have “trapped one of the most modern, intelligent, unmanned submarines of the terrorist US army at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz”.

Without divulging specific details, the IRGC added it was a “complex intelligence and operational mastermind operation at dawn today”.

“This smart submersible features the latest technology in the submersible field in the world, and was delivered to the US terrorist army fleet in 2025,” the IRGC said in its statement.