Sea drone rescues U.S. Army Apache helicopter crew near the Strait of Hormuz

BBC Diplomatic Editor James Landale reported that at a Pentagon press briefing Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall described how a Saildrone Surveyor-class uncrewed speedboat rescued Captain Marcus Reilly and Lieutenant Colonel Tonya Calhoun off the coast of Bandar Lengeh after midnight on Monday. The helicopter went down in a contested incident; officials said pilot error, mechanical failure or hostile fire from Iran were all being investigated.

The sea drone was operated from a combined operations centre based in Bahrain, 1,000 miles away. U.S. Navy spokesperson Commodore Tim Hawkins said Saildrone technology had completed 1,200 manned reconnaissance missions over 14 months in the Persian Gulf, under an annual $200 million operational-test budget. After the rescue, the two crew members were reported in stable condition in the sickbay of USS Carl Vinson; recovery of helicopter wreckage has not yet begun, due to ongoing Syria-Iraq air-space disputes.

The rescue is accelerating Pentagon interest in uncrewed sea technology. House Armed Services Committee chairman Mike Rogers said at a Tuesday hearing that a bill would be prepared for an additional $4 billion in uncrewed sea-vehicle procurement. Saildrone CEO Richard Jenkins said in a statement after the rescue that the programme would deploy a new Surveyor V2 version with 24-hour energy autonomy and 6,000-mile range in mid-2027. A Department of the Navy spokesperson confirmed that the force-planning document requests 24 additional uncrewed platforms for seven hot spots including Hormuz.