China News Service, September 11th: Recently, Iran captured large equipment from the United States. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced with a high profile on the 8th that it captured a submersible LD-type unmanned submarine at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz, calling it "one of the most advanced unmanned intelligent submarines" of the US military.
This is a torpedo-shaped cylindrical submersible, made of gray metal, about 5.8 meters long, 1.2 meters wide, weighing about 2.7 tons, and has a maximum diving depth of 6,000 meters. This type of submarine can perform a variety of missions, including seafloor mapping, intelligence and surveillance operations, inspection of underwater infrastructure such as pipelines, and anti-submarine warfare support.
Although the U.S. military tried to downplay the importance of the unmanned submarine falling into the hands of Iran, saying that the submarine was an old model and did not carry sensitive data, Reuters pointed out that Iran's seizure of the U.S. unmanned submarine provided Tehran with an opportunity to conduct technical research and "reverse engineering" research. This is undoubtedly a setback for the U.S. Department of Defense.
America mocked by Iran
Iranian embassies and consulates in many countries have ridiculed the United States for losing its unmanned submarine.
The Consulate General of Iran in Hyderabad, India, posted on social media in the early morning of the 9th: "Tomorrow morning, our reverse engineers will hold an unboxing ceremony!" The accompanying picture shows a "Submersible-LD" unmanned underwater vehicle, saying it is the "same model" as a trophy of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The Iranian Embassy in Ghana sarcastically said, "We fished it out like a plastic bottle from a fishing net" and "expressed condolences to the person holding the joystick at the time."
The Pentagon tried to downplay the losses. U.S. Central Command spokesman Tim Hawkins said the unmanned submarine was an older model that not only had "malfunctions" but also did not carry any sensitive data, nor was it equipped with any classified sonar or radar equipment.
However, Reuters directly pointed out that the US Navy's statement is inconsistent with previous advertising words of the relevant defense contractor Anduril. Anduril has previously called the Diving-LD unmanned underwater vehicle the "most reliable and flexible" large-scale autonomous underwater vehicle, claiming that it can operate continuously for up to 10 days under harsh conditions.
There is a precedent for the capture of US military equipment
In fact, this is not the first time that Iran has "captured US military equipment." Reuters pointed out that the United States had previously regarded the fall of advanced drones into the hands of Iran as a serious incident.
In 2011, Iran captured an RQ-170 Sentinel stealth reconnaissance aircraft, and then-U.S. President Obama publicly demanded that Iran return the drone. Iran subsequently claimed to have reverse-engineered the drone and launched domestically produced models that appeared to borrow heavily from the RQ-170's design.
In recent years, the US military has also taken rapid action to prevent Iran from acquiring unmanned maritime technology. According to the U.S. Navy, in 2022, the U.S. military dispatched a patrol ship and MH-60S "Sea Hawk" helicopter to prevent Iran from towing a Saildrone unmanned surface vessel from the Gulf.
Iran may "reverse develop" US military submarines
This time the US military's unmanned submarine was completely captured by Iran, which is indeed a bit embarrassing for the Pentagon.
Brian Clark, director of the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology at the Hudson Institute, a U.S. think tank, said Iran would almost certainly try to dismantle the hardware of the captured U.S. drones, and given Tehran's track record in handling captured U.S. aircraft, Iranian engineers "will certainly be able to reverse engineer the mechanical systems." But he pointed out that the submarine's software has internal defense capabilities.
Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said this would help Iran improve their own designs.
Mona Jacobian, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, commented that Iran used the incident of capturing a US submarine to try to describe it as a manifestation of US incompetence while demonstrating Iran's ability to maintain control of the Strait of Hormuz.
Some analysts pointed out that although Iran is unlikely to gain a decisive military advantage through the captured unmanned submarine, this incident is still a propaganda "victory" for Tehran, and uses this to point out that the United States has suffered an embarrassing defeat.
