U.S. uses sea drones for first combat strike on Iran base

Three Corsair unmanned surface vessels struck a submarine and ship maintenance facility at Bandar Abbas naval base, giving the U.S. military its first combat use of sea drones against Iran. The attack came as part of Operation Epic Fury and added a new weapon to a campaign that has already targeted Iranian air defenses, radar sites, missile and drone assets, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps positions.

The use of one-way attack sea drones pushes unmanned systems from reconnaissance and patrol work into direct strikes against a fixed naval target. Earlier in the conflict, U.S. forces had already used uncrewed drone speedboats for maritime patrols in support of Operation Epic Fury. CENTCOM also carried out self-defense strikes on Iranian radar and drone command-and-control sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island after Iranian actions that included the shootdown of a U.S. MQ-1 drone over international waters.

In a July 10, 2025 memorandum, the Department of Defense called drones “the biggest battlefield innovation in a generation,” and a July 8, 2026 Army publication tied combat experience with drone threats in the Middle East to counter-UAS doctrine. Small autonomous or semi-autonomous platforms can threaten ports, maintenance facilities, and warships at a fraction of the cost of a conventional missile strike.

Ukraine’s explosive-laden speedboat attacks on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet helped bring uncrewed surface vessels to prominence as a weapon of war, and Iran has used sea drones against oil tankers in the Gulf at least twice since the U.S. and Israel began strikes nearly a month before the latest American attack.