Did Iran intentionally strike an Apache attack helicopter? And how did an autonomous boat pull off the rescue? In the fog of war, early reports claimed the chopper was shot down by a missile. but that wasn’t the real story. On a pitch-black night in the Gulf of Oman an Iranian drone rammed straight into the helicopter, with the wreckage supposedly lodging in its rotor blades. Miraculously, the drone’s warhead failed to detonate. If the igniter had made full contact, the blast would have been catastrophic. Instead, the aircraft went down, leaving the two pilots stranded in the water. So, who saved them? In a historic first, the US Military sent an autonomous drone boat. Because the Gulf is heavily monitored by Iranian radar, a manned rescue chopper was too risky. The drone boat was the perfect solution: it relies entirely on passive radar, meaning it doesn’t emit signals that the enemy can track. No rescue helicopter. No human crew. Just two stranded pilots and a robot that brought them home.”
AiTelly