Iran Seizes Advanced US Drone, Potential for Reverse Engineering?
Iranian authorities have reportedly seized an advanced underwater drone belonging to the United States military. This seizure provides Tehran with an opportunity to study and potentially reverse-engineer the drone.
The drone in question is the Dive-LD, an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) designed for long-range surveillance missions and other undersea operations. Iran is predicted to make significant efforts to dismantle the drone’s hardware to uncover its manufacturing secrets.
“Of course, Iran will utilise every opportunity as a propaganda victory,” said Farzin Nadimi, a senior researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “This could help (the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps/IRGC) create improved versions of their own designs,” he added, as reported by Reuters on Thursday.
This incident represents a significant blow to the Pentagon and the drone manufacturer, Anduril. However, the US military and Anduril have downplayed the significance of the drone falling into Iranian hands.
US Navy officials previously stated that the Dive-LD was an older model that had malfunctioned and was discovered by Iranian forces after being left “dead in the water.”
Anduril has promoted the Dive-LD as the “most reliable and flexible” large autonomous underwater vehicle, stating that the drone is capable of operating for up to 10 days in difficult conditions. In addition to its use by the US Navy, the Dive-LD serves as a test vehicle for the development of Australia’s new large underwater drone, the Ghost Shark.
The Dive-LD is part of a new generation of military drones intended to operate for days with minimal human intervention. Washington has previously regarded the loss of advanced drones to Iran as a serious issue.
In 2011, after Iran captured the US stealth reconnaissance drone RQ-170 Sentinel, then-President Barack Obama openly requested that Tehran return the aircraft. Iran subsequently claimed to have reverse-engineered the drone and later launched domestically produced models that appeared strikingly similar to the original design.