Three U.S. Navy-backed Saronic Corsair one-way attack sea drones struck Iran's Bandar Abbas Naval Base on Sunday, according to U.S. Central Command.
The operation marks the clearest sign yet that the U.S. military has taken a page directly from Ukraine's maritime warfare playbook, using expendable, autonomous, suicide stealth drone boats to penetrate a heavily defended naval facility - much cheaper than a million-dollar missile.
Yesterday, using multiple one-way attack surface drones, CENTCOM forces successfully struck a submarine and ship maintenance facility in Iran. Three Corsair unmanned surface vessels hit the port at Bandar Abbas Naval Base, marking the first time American forces have employed sea… pic.twitter.com/bOM2kmgRxz
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) July 13, 2026
More broadly, the combat debut of suicide drone boats and AI-enabled loitering munitions shows how technologies once thought to be in the future- perhaps the 2030s - are being pulled forward into the present.
Three weeks into the US-Iran conflict. We briefed readers on the deployment of these suicide drone boats and one-way attack drones that the US military was rapidly deploying.
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