- Bayern hit nine, Real Madrid and Liverpool win as new Champions League kicks off
- Author John Grisham joins bid to save Texas death row inmate
- Venezuela arrests fourth American over alleged 'plot' against Maduro
- 'Happy' Mbappe strikes on Madrid Champions League debut win over Stuttgart
- Man Utd hit Barnsley for seven in League Cup rout
- Dolphins quarterback Tagovailoa facing concussion layoff
- Stylish Liverpool strut past Milan in confident Champions league opener
- Kane scores four as Bayern put nine past Zagreb in the Champions League
- Mbappe strikes on Madrid Champions League debut win over Stuttgart
- More than 3,600 food packaging chemicals found in human bodies
- Harris calls Trump as assassination scare sparks tensions
- Dow edges down from record as some eye a smaller Fed rate cut
- Sommer vows Inter will 'defend with all we have' to stop Haaland
- Report links meatpacking companies to 'war on nature' in Brazil
- Bolivian ex-leader Morales, backers set out on weeklong protest march
- Smith grateful to McCullum for launching his England career
- Arizona to ask court to rule on voting rights
- Villa make perfect start on Champions League return after 41-year absence
- Israeli supply chain infiltration likely behind Hezbollah pager blasts: analysts
- Rodgers backs Celtic to be 'really competitive' in Champions League
- Spacewalk an 'emotional experience' for private astronauts
- Storm Boris toll rises to 22 in central Europe
- Nine dead, 2,800 wounded as Lebanon's Hezbollah hit by pager blasts
- Boeing, union resume talks as strike empties Seattle plants
- Over 3,600 food packaging chemicals found in human bodies
- Australia's Zampa accepts Ashes chances remote as 100th ODI looms
- UN General Assembly debates call for end to Israeli occupation
- Marseille complete signing of French international Rabiot
- Easterby to fill in as Ireland coach while Farrell is with the Lions
- Hezbollah in Lebanon hit by wave of deadly pager blasts
- Postecoglou taken aback by criticism of his second season success claim
- US, European stocks rise on retail sales, rate cut expectations
- Fendi sees Roaring 20s at Milan Fashion Week in challenging times
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr part ways with coach Castro
- Scottish government backs Glasgow to stage troubled 2026 Commonwealth Games
- Storm Boris toll rises to 21 in central Europe
- Instagram, under pressure, tightens protection for teens
- Inflation slows again in Canada to 2%
- US, European stocks rise on eve of Fed rate decision
- EU bans Algerian spread toasted on social media
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs charged with racketeering, sex trafficking
- Trump returns to campaign trail after assassination scare
- Activist urges repatriation of Native Americans dead in Paris 'human zoo'
- US retail sales see slight rise, beating expectations
- US Fed begins two-day meeting set to end with rate cut
- Exploding Hezbollah pagers wound hundreds across Lebanon
- Runners-up Yokohama thrashed 7-3 in AFC Champions League goal fest
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs to plead not guilty to racketeering, sex trafficking
- Jihadist group claims rare attack on Mali capital
- 'I am a rapist,' Frenchman tells trial over mass rape of wife
Pentagon combines sea drones, AI to police Gulf region
Iran's recent seizure of unmanned US Navy boats shined a light on a pioneering Pentagon program to develop networks of air, surface and underwater drones for patrolling large regions, meshing their surveillance with artificial intelligence.
The year-old program operates numerous unmanned surface vessels, or USVs, in the waters around the Arabian peninsula, gathering data and images to be beamed back to collection centers in the Gulf.
The program operated without incident until Iranian forces tried to grab three seven-meter Saildrone Explorer USVs in two incidents, on August 29-30 and September 1.
In the first, a ship of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hooked a line to a Saildrone in the Gulf and began towing it away, only releasing it when a US Navy Patrol boat and helicopter sped to the scene.
In the second, an Iranian destroyer picked up two Saildrones in the Red Sea, hoisting them aboard.
Two US Navy destroyers and helicopters quickly descended, and persuaded the Iranians to give them up the next day, but only after stripping cameras from them, according to the US military.
The Iranians said the USVs were in international shipping lanes and were picked up "to prevent possible accidents."
The US Navy said the USVs were operating well out of shipping lanes and unarmed.
Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of US Naval Forces Central Command, called the Iranian actions "flagrant, unwarranted and inconsistent with the behavior of a professional maritime force."
US forces "will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows," he added.
- One year at sea -
The drones are operated by the Bahrain-based US 5th Fleet's Task Force 59, created last year to integrate unmanned systems and artificial intelligence into Middle East operations.
Airborne and subsea drones are pretty well developed and proven, but unmanned surface boats are much newer and yet essential for the future, 5th Fleet spokesman Commander Tim Hawkins told AFP.
Since starting last year, the US Navy and regional partners have deployed both slow USVs like Saildrones and battery-powered speedboats like the Mantas T-12.
Equipped with solar panels and sail wings, the Saildrones carry multiple sensors and cameras, and are designed to spend up to a year at sea transmitting data by satellite.
San Francisco-based Saildrone operates around 100 vessels around the world for clients including the Pentagon, major oceanographic institutes, meteorological agencies, and groups studying fisheries and pollution.
"Having circumnavigated Antarctica in 2019 and then having sailed through the eye of a category-four hurricane last year, there really isn’t any maritime environment our drones cannot operate," said Saildrone spokeswoman Susan Ryan.
- Focus on Iranian activities -
In the Gulf, Hawkins would only say that they collect information for "enhancing our vigilance of the surrounding seas and strengthening our regional deterrence posture."
But Iranian activities are likely the main target.
Iran also patrols the region and has accosted and seized foreign commercial vessels and harassed US Navy ships in several tense confrontations in recent years.
The US Navy has sought to prevent Iran from shipping weapons to Yemen's Houthi rebels and other groups, and also helps enforce sanctions on Iran.
The key, Hawkins said, is taking the information collected from all sorts of unmanned sources, in the air, on the ground and on the sea, and making sense of it quickly.
Artificial intelligence helps identify unusual activity, like unnoticed vessels, in the USV data that human observers might miss.
"You need artificial intelligence to pick out what warrants more attention," he said.
- No secret -
Hawkins said it was unclear why only after a year into the program that the Iranians suddenly decide to try to retrieve some Saildrones.
None of what the US is doing is secret, he noted.
The program was announced last September, and in February the 5th Fleet hosted International Maritime Exercise 2022, which brought together 10 countries and more than 80 USVs to try out in the Gulf.
Even so, the US chose to place Task Force 59 in the tension-filled Gulf instead of another less challenging region, and the activities apparently have Tehran bothered.
The US military says the program is in part about developing tactics and doctrines for operating USVs, including learning how to deal with a country like Iran trying to grab them off the sea.
Right now the US operates them with manned surface vessels nearby to deal with interference.
"You can't just go pick up stuff out of the ocean that has a country's flag on it," said one US official.
"If it's the sovereign property of our nation, they have to give it over," the official said.
O.Norris--AMWN