US (Washington Insider Magazine)-DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (Transatlantic Today) — In the most recent maritime conflict involving the Navy’s new drone fleet in the Middle East, Iran’s navy captured 2 American sea drones in the Red Sea before releasing them on Friday as U.S. warships approached, according to sources.
Iranian state media presented footage that it said was taken on the deck of the warship Jamaran of the Iranian military, where personnel wearing life jackets inspected 2 Saildrone Explorers. As another cruiser could be seen out in the distance, they threw one overboard.
The Red Sea, a significant international waterway connecting the Arabian Peninsula to northern Africa, does not border Iran.
According to State TV, the Iranian navy discovered numerous abandoned spy ships in the international sea routes on Thursday.
According to ABC NEWS, the captured drones were recognised as Saildrone Explorers by the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, which is stationed in the Middle East. These drones are offered for sale and are utilized by a range of customers, including scientists, to keep an eye on open waterways.
The USS Delbert D. Black and USS Nitze, two Navy guided-missile destroyers, responded to the seizure around 2:00 p.m. on Thursday and each sent out an MH-60 SeaHawk helicopter, according to the 5th Fleet. Iran eventually turned the drones over at 8 am on Friday.
According to a U.S. official, the Iranian sailors initially attempted to hide the drones using tarps and denied possessing them. The officer, who spoke anonymously to share private information regarding the confiscation, claimed that cameras on the drones also disappeared during the incident.
As the discussions over Iran’s nuclear agreement with Western powers loom, this is the second such event in recent days.
The earlier incident, which started Monday night, took place in the Persian Gulf and featured Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard rather than its regular navy. A Saildrone Explorer was hauled by the Guard before being released while an American vessel followed it. Iran had attacked the American Navy for publishing a “Hollywood” film of the event, but on Friday, the Red Sea incident, Iran did the same.
Last year, the autonomous Task Force 59 of the 5th Fleet was established. Ultra-long-range aerial surveillance drones, surface vessels like the Sea Hunter and the Sea Hawk, and tiny underwater drones that resembled torpedoes are among the drones utilized by the Navy.
The strategic Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf’s narrow entrance through which 20% of the world’s oil travels, is part of the jurisdiction of the 5th Fleet. It also extends to the Red Sea, which is close to the Suez Canal, the Egyptian canal that connects to the Mediterranean, and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which is off Yemen.
In recent years, the area has experienced several maritime assaults.
In the midst of Yemen’s protracted war, bomb-laden drone crafts and mines sent adrift by the Houthi rebels have harmed ships in the Red Sea. Oil ships have been taken over by Iranian military in the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz and the United Arab Emirates. In incidents that the Navy attributes to Iran, others have been attacked.
Those assaults happened approximately a year after then-President Donald Trump made the unilateral decision to end Iran’s participation in the nuclear agreement in 2018. Under that agreement, Tehran’s uranium enrichment was severely reduced in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.
Now negotiations to restore the agreement are in jeopardy. On Friday, the U.S. questioned Iran’s most recent written answer about the negotiations.
As authorities openly claim Tehran may produce a nuclear weapon if it so wants, Iran is currently enriching uranium more closely than ever to levels suitable for use in weapons. Although international observers and Western countries claim Tehran had a military nuclear programme up to 2003, Iran has insisted that its programme is peaceful.
