Iran’s Revolutionary Guards say they have captured a second US military underwater drone in the Strait of Hormuz this month. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy announced the seizure on Sunday, September 27, naming the craft as a Remus 600 and saying its experts are now extracting data from it. Washington flatly rejects the claim. If it were true, the loss could give Iran, and possibly China, a window into American undersea technology.
The IRGC Navy says it tracked and trapped the vehicle using intelligence and electronic warfare, and accused it of spying in the strait. Iranian state media aired footage that it says shows the captured vehicle.
IRGC Navy spokesman Hossein Mohebbi later gave the craft a different name, identifying it as a Mk 18 Mod 2 Kingfish, a US Navy mine-hunting system that uses the Remus 600 as its base. He described the strait on X as “a hunting ground for the IRGC Navy targeting American submarines.”
The Pentagon’s response to IRGC’s Claims
US Central Command (CENTCOM) denies losing any drone. Spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins said the US keeps “positive control of all of our operational drone assets” and dismissed the Iranian claim as “clearly desperate.” CENTCOM also points to a shift in Iran’s account. Tehran changed the vehicle’s name in its second statement.
The second claim from IRGC this month
Earlier in September, the IRGC said it captured a Dive-LD, a drone built by the California firm Anduril Industries, which the IRGC Navy hailed as a “prize.” Reports differ on the exact date of that incident. A Pentagon spokesperson said the Dive-LD malfunctioned more than a day before Iran’s announcement and carried no classified sonar or radar equipment.
The China question
The larger concern for Washington may lie in Beijing. Chinese groups have supplied Iran with satellite imagery and intelligence which, according to US intelligence assessments, sharpened Iranian threats to shipping and strikes on US bases. US officials remain unsure whether Beijing directs this help or simply allows it. One source said Iran is now downing US MQ-9 Reaper drones “left and right.”
In April, US intelligence reported that China was preparing to send new air defence systems to Iran. Beijing made the claim while portraying itself as a broker of a fragile ceasefire. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has told Congress that China and Russia both aid Iran at different levels, and that both are “enabling some of the things Iran is doing.”
That raises the question of whether Tehran could repay Beijing with a close look at American undersea technology. No official has confirmed any such exchange.
Iran captured a US RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone in December 2011, during the Obama presidency. In 2012, a Chinese expert team travelled to Iran to inspect it, and Iran later said it flew its own reverse-engineered copy. A Remus 600 carries sonar and cameras and can dive to about 600 metres, and the drone’s memory could reveal how US underwater systems operate.
China has its own record. In December 2016, a Chinese warship seized a US Navy underwater glider in the South China Sea. A US official said the glider bore clear markings showing it was US property. President-elect Donald Trump responded that China should simply keep it, and Beijing returned the glider within days.
This year, Trump has warned that China “is gonna have big problems” if it ships weapons to Iran. He also hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at a White House state dinner on September 24. Three days later, Iran made the drone capture claim.
The IRGC insists the Strait of Hormuz remains “closed.” Tehran says it shut the waterway in response to US-Israeli strikes in February and a maritime blockade. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Iran will reopen it only on its own terms. Trump says he expects fresh talks with Iran this week, but that Tehran has yet to offer acceptable terms.