U.S. Deploys Maritime Drones in Combat for First Time: A Shift in Naval Warfare?

A small boat cuts rapidly through the water, followed by an explosion and a massive fireball.

This is the first time the United States has deployed maritime drones in actual combat.

On July 13 (local time), U.S. Central Command announced that it had successfully completed a mission the previous day using three maritime drones to strike submarine and vessel maintenance facilities at Iran's Bandar Abbas naval base.

The key player in this attack was the Corsair, an unmanned high-speed boat approximately 7.3 meters long, developed by the U.S. defense startup Saronic.

It is a high-performance weapon capable of reaching top speeds of about 65 km/h, traveling distances exceeding 1,850 km, and carrying up to 450 kg of explosives.

The cost of a single drone is 1 million dollars, or approximately 1.3 billion won, which is overwhelmingly cheaper compared to conventional warships that cost hundreds of billions of won.

Until now, asymmetric tactics using maritime drones have been considered primarily the domain of Ukraine's cost-effective operations.

Despite its inferior naval strength, Ukraine shocked the world by using maritime drones known as Sea Babies to neutralize large Russian warships and the Black Sea Fleet.

While maritime drones have clear limitations, such as vulnerability to communication jamming or electronic warfare, they offer the advantage of striking the enemy at a low cost without putting large warships at risk.

Because of this, everyone from British billionaire defense entrepreneurs to numerous startups in Silicon Valley is jumping into the race to develop maritime drones.

In fact, the U.S. Department of Defense is solidifying plans to purchase maritime drones in large quantities to keep major powers like China in check in the future.

As the United States, which boasts the world's most powerful military, begins to utilize maritime drone technology in official combat operations, a paradigm shift in naval warfare is expected worldwide.

Reported by Lee Hyeon-yeong | Video by Hong Jin-young | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.