How a drone boat rescued Apache helicopter pilots stranded in darkness near Strait of Hormuz

How a drone boat rescued Apache helicopter pilots stranded in darkness near Strait of Hormuz Unmanned Navy vessel used in reconnaissance tracked down two airmen in the waters off Oman and delivered them to safety in what is believed to be a historic first for the U.S. military - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments The U.S. has responded to the downing of one of its Army Apache attack helicopters over the Strait of Hormuz on Monday by launching a series of retaliatory airstrikes against Iranian military sites in the Gulf. Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has since hit back in kind, firing on U.S. bases in Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait, calling the American assault “vicious.” The revival of hostilities between the two sides has meanwhile caused Iran to threaten to withdraw from peace talks, leaving the pair languishing in stalemate more than three months on from the launch of the U.S. and Israel’s Operation Epic Fury on February 28. President Donald Trump had signaled that the strikes were coming, saying the superpower “must, of necessity” respond to its aircraft being taken out. The helicopter in question was patrolling the strait – through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil is shipped and which Iran has blockaded, driving up global fuel prices – leaving two Army aviators in a battle for survival in the waters off the coast of Oman. Their craft crashed at approximately 3:30 a.m. local time, according to Captain Tim Hawkins of the U.S. military’s Central Command, causing the men to spend two hours in the sea amid the pre-dawn darkness. They were eventually rescued when their location was pinpointed by a Navy surface drone boat – unmanned, measuring 24 feet in length and resembling a speedboat – onto which they clambered to be taken back to another vessel and then airlifted to shore in another helicopter. “The surface drone that assisted in last night’s rescue of the Apache crew off the coast of Oman was a U.S. Navy Corsair unmanned surface vessel operated by U.S. 5th Fleet’s Task Force 59,” said Capt. Hawkins. “The task force began fielding these drones in theater in late March.” The episode marked what is believed to be the very first drone rescue at sea carried out by the American military. Speaking to the media at New York’s John F Kennedy Airport on Monday night after attending Game 3 of the NBA Finals, Trump offered an update on the airmen’s condition: “The pilots are fine. Yeah. Nobody injured. We are going to issue a report tomorrow. But the pilots are fine.” The task force behind the rescue was established in 2021, according to ABC News, and operates a stable of autonomous surface and aerial drones in the Middle East for reconnaissance, with the data shared with manned warships also deployed to the region. The drones enhance the 5th Fleet’s capabilities by helping detect smuggling and malign Iranian activity through behavioral patterns monitored by its sensors, Navy officials told the network. Introducing the task force in October 2022, then-5th Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, who now leads Central Command, said: “For pennies on the dollar we can put unmanned platforms out there, we can couple it with artificial intelligence… and then, I think critically important, we can use our manned ships much more efficiently, much more effectively.” The Corsair drone used in the rescue operation is valued at around $1.2 million, whereas a Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopter, like the one brought down, costs between $35 and $40 million for its airframe alone. When weapons, spare parts, and specialist training are factored in, the cost can be as high as $110 million, according to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. The incident is the latest evidence of the mounting toll the war is taking on American forces and supplies, with more than 500 troops injured and the U.S. facing dwindling munitions stockpiles and potential budget cuts unless Congress moves to grant emergency funding. At least 13 service members have been killed in the conflict so far, including six people who were wiped out when two refueling jets collided over Iraq. An Iranian drone strike on a command post in Kuwait then killed another six. Meanwhile, at least 42 aircraft have been damaged or destroyed, including F-15 fighter jets, an F-35 Lightning II aircraft, drones and a HH-60W Jolly Green II combat search-and-rescue helicopter, according to a Congressional Research Service report published last month. This week’s helicopter rescue follows an equally spectacular mission to retrieve two pilots whose F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down over the mountains of Iran in April. While the first officer was quickly spotted southwest of Isfahan and flown to safety in a helicopter, the second had to evade capture behind enemy lines in the barren wilderness for 36 hours before finally being traced thanks to the CIA’s new “Ghost Murmur” technology. The equipment uses long-range quantum magnetometry – technology that measures magnetic fields – to trace the electromagnetic signals produced by a human heartbeat. Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments