The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) identified the advanced US autonomous underwater vehicle it claims to have seized in the Strait of Hormuz as the Anduril Dive-LD, capable of 10-day endurance and depths of 6,000 meters. The IRGC said it was captured Tuesday morning following a complex intelligence and operational action. The claim has not been independently verified.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Tuesday evening identified the advanced US autonomous underwater vehicle it claims to have seized in the Strait of Hormuz as the Anduril Dive-LD, a next-generation AUV capable of 10-day autonomous operations and dives to depths of 6,000 meters. The IRGC said the vessel was captured earlier Tuesday morning following a complex intelligence and operational action. The identification update follows the IRGC's initial claim, reported by The Zioneer at 17:50 Jerusalem time, that it had seized an advanced US autonomous submarine in the strait.
The claim has not been independently verified, and the United States has not issued a public response. The IRGC has stated that images of the vehicle will be released in the coming hours. The development fits a pattern of Iranian assertions of operational successes against US military assets in the Strait of Hormuz. As The Zioneer reported, the IRGC has previously claimed the downing of a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the strait (August 3) and the interception of another MQ-9 (July 13), as well as the seizure of a US autonomous submarine earlier on Tuesday.
The Strait of Hormuz remains a focal point of US-Iranian maritime tensions. The United States has maintained a covert secure shipping lane through the southern corridor along the Omani coast, moving approximately 10 million barrels of oil per day under US air cover despite nightly Iranian drone attacks, as The Zioneer reported on August 20. CENTCOM has deployed over 20 ships in an enforcement blockade since July 14, which has interdicted 22 vessels, according to a CENTCOM disclosure reported by The Zioneer on July 28.
No visual evidence of the captured AUV has been released, and the exact circumstances of the alleged capture remain unconfirmed. The IRGC's identification of the vessel as the Anduril Dive-LD has not been independently corroborated.
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Source and signal
- Open-source intake