The guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem and French Navy destroyer FS Languedoc, and the guided-missile cruiser USS Gravely transit the Strait of Hormuz, Nov. 26. The Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations to support maritime stability and security in the Middle East region. (Janae Chambers/U.S. Navy)
U.S. forces stopped an Iranian attempt this week to steal an American surface drone patrolling waters in the Middle East, U.S. Central Command said Tuesday.
The two small Iranian boats involved “were unsuccessful after CENTCOM forcefully responded,” command spokesman Capt. Tim Hawkins said in an email to Stars and Stripes. He added that the surface drone remains under U.S. operational control but did not say when or where the incident on Monday occurred.
On Tuesday, the Arlington, Va.-based news site Axios reported that U.S. forces destroyed two Iranian boats after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps tried to commandeer a Navy surface drone patrolling the Strait of Hormuz.
An American drone fired two missiles on the boats, destroying them and killing all aboard, according to the Axios report which cited unidentified U.S. officials. An Iran-government news agency said the vessels were fishing boats.
CENTCOM did not immediately respond to questions about the identity of the boats, but the IRGC has a fleet of small boats used in military operations, such as laying sea mines.
The incident comes as the U.S. military continues to facilitate commercial ship transits in the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of global oil consumption traveled daily prior to the start of the conflict on Feb. 28.
Last week, a U.S. official said just under 11 million barrels of oil were passing through the strait daily on a seven-day average, crediting coordinated protection for tankers by the Navy. That figure is roughly 25% below the prewar average of about 15 million barrels per day in 2025, according to the shipping analytics firm Kpler.
In total, the U.S. military has successfully assisted in getting approximately 1,600 vessels and more than 800 million barrels of crude oil through the strait since early May, Hawkins said last week. Multiple routes through the strait remain free and open for transit, he said.
The incident involving the Iranian boats also follows rising tensions in the region, including multiple attacks on commercial ships in the strait since July.
The U.K. Maritime Trade Operations Center, a British military organization that monitors threats to commercial shipping in the region, reported Tuesday that a vessel traveling the Strait of Hormuz was struck the previous day by an unknown projectile. The incident was under investigation.
On Saturday, another vessel transiting the strait was struck by an unknown projectile, resulting in a fire and evacuation of the crew, the organization reported Sunday.
In August, there were 12 attacks on ships in the waterway, with 27 overall since July 6, the agency said earlier this month. Most of those were in a southern route near Oman.
Meanwhile, U.S. forces in the Arabian Sea have successfully redirected at least 100 commercial vessels over the past 60 days since resuming a maritime blockade against Iranian ports.
President Donald Trump seemed to indicate on Monday that the blockade and other U.S. actions were taking a toll on Iran.
“The failing Nation of Iran wants to make a deal, quickly and badly,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social. “I will determine whether or not the U.S.A. will choose to engage - The concept of which we are open to.”
It wasn’t apparent Tuesday if Trump had reached a decision.
