The United States military has used armed maritime drones in a combat operation for the first time, targeting Iran, according to multiple reports.
According to DefenseScoop, the strike was carried out using Corsair maritime drones, robotic platforms built by the company Saronic.
The Pentagon said US forces struck a submarine and ship maintenance facility at Iran's Bandar Abbas naval base on Sunday, according to reporting published by Yahoo Finance. It described the operation as the first combat use of armed sea drones by US forces.
According to MSN, three unmanned speedboats carried out the attack on the Iranian submarine and ship facility, marking what it called a US combat first.
The common thread across all three sources is that this was a debut: uncrewed surface vessels, rather than piloted boats or aircraft, delivered the strike on Iranian naval infrastructure.
Why it matters: crossing the line from testing autonomous sea drones to using them in an actual attack signals a shift in how the US may fight future conflicts at sea, raising the stakes in the ongoing debate over machines that carry weapons into combat.