Iran has US Dive-LD underwater drone in hand, can reverse-engineer it

TASS

MOSCOW, September 11. /TASS/. Now that Iran has captured a US military unmanned underwater vehicle, Dive LD, manufactured by the American company Anduril Industries, it can study the technologies used in it and produce a copy of it, Reuters reported, citing military experts.

In their view, the US military and Anduril have downplayed the significance of the drone falling into Iranian hands. The vessel, a Dive-LD autonomous underwater vehicle designed for long-range surveillance and other undersea missions, is among a new generation of military drones intended to operate for days with little human intervention. Washington has previously treated the loss of advanced drones to Iran as a serious matter.

As the experts pointed out, Washington had not previously treated Iran’s seizure of US-made drones with such nonchalance. They mentioned the incident involving the secret RQ-170 Sentinel reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle, which fell into Tehran’s hands in 2011.

"After Iran captured an RQ-170 Sentinel stealth reconnaissance drone in 2011, then-President Barack Obama publicly asked Tehran to return the aircraft. Iran later claimed it had reverse-engineered the drone and subsequently unveiled domestically produced models that appeared to draw heavily on its design," Reuters reported.

"More recently, ·the US military moved swiftly to prevent Iranian forces from taking possession of uncrewed maritime technology. In 2022, a US Navy patrol ship and MH-60S Seahawk helicopter were deployed after an Iranian naval vessel attempted to tow away a Saildrone surface vessel in the Gulf, according to the Navy," the agency noted.

Analysts say Iran is unlikely to gain a decisive military advantage from the captured drone, but the episode nonetheless represents a propaganda victory for Tehran and an awkward setback for Washington's efforts to project technological superiority, according to Reuters.

The Dive-LD unmanned underwater vehicle was developed by Dive Technologies, a company acquired by Anduril in 2022. According to the manufacturer, the vehicle is 5.8 meters long, 1.2 meters in diameter, and capable of operating autonomously for up to 10 days without returning to base, as well as diving to a depth of up to 6,000 meters.

Fonte: TASS