Iran regional confrontation

IRGC says it captured a US Dive-LD underwater drone; CENTCOM says an older vehicle failed

This version is a correction.

ATTACK
Location
Entrance to the Strait of Hormuz (IRGC claim; exact recovery position unpublished)
Actors
Iran · United States
Importance
Notable

Iran’s IRGC Navy said that in the early hours of 8 September it seized one of the most advanced US unmanned underwater vehicles at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz and identified it as Anduril’s Dive-LD, delivered to the US Navy in 2025. CENTCOM spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said a US underwater drone had malfunctioned more than a day earlier while surveying regional waters, that it was an older model with no classified sonar or radar, and that US operations continue. Washington has not confirmed that Iran holds a Dive-LD.

IRGC Statement No. 12 called the recovery a complex intelligence and operational action and said images would follow; Iranian state media then released video of a partially submerged vehicle. Naval News said the photograph matches Anduril’s Dive-LD in form and in details including flood holes, fastenings, a short transparent mast and X-form rudders. Hawkins’s on-record reply to NewsNation does not name the model, does not confirm a capture, and describes a malfunction rather than an intercept. Possession of some US-origin underwater vehicle is the overlapping fact; how it got there, and whether it is a 2025 Dive-LD with sensitive payloads, is the dispute.

Why it matters

The entrance to Hormuz is the water both sides claim to control. An American large-displacement AUV in Iranian hands, even a failed one, is a trophy in that argument and a look at whatever sensors it actually carried.

X · @PressTVunverified

IRGC Navy footage of a partially submerged vehicle it identified as a US Dive-LD, released by Press TV. CENTCOM says an older drone malfunctioned; the model is disputed.

Credit Press TV (@PressTV) ·

Play contacts video.twimg.com directly.

X · @PressTVunverified

Press TV package on the IRGC Navy’s capture claim. Two accounts of how the vehicle got there remain incompatible, so this clip is not treated as confirmation of a Dive-LD intercept.

Credit Press TV (@PressTV) ·

Play contacts video.twimg.com directly.

Verification: Disputed

Evidence: Iran seizes US autonomous underwater vehicle in Strait of Hormuz, Underwater Drone Captured By Iran Matches American Anduril Model, CENTCOM Capt. Tim Hawkins: US underwater drone malfunctioned more than a day ago, IRGC Seizes U.S. Unmanned Underwater Vehicle, IRGC Navy releases footage of captured US Navy unmanned submersible vehicle, IRGC says its naval forces captured an advanced US unmanned submersible at the Strait of Hormuz

IRGC claims a dawn capture of a 2025 Anduril Dive-LD. CENTCOM says an older US underwater drone malfunctioned more than a day earlier and carried no classified sonar or radar. Naval News says the IRGC photograph matches a Dive-LD. Washington has not confirmed the model or a capture.