PDB Afternoon Bulletin | July 14th, 2026: U.S. Unleashes New Weapon In The Strait Of Hormuz

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
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**Mike Baker** (0:38)
It's Tuesday, the 14th of July. Welcome to The PDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. First up, the US. Naval Blockade of Iran is officially back on, and American forces unveiled a new weapon in their efforts in the Strait of Hormuz, or be armed sea drones. We'll have the details.
Later in the show, after years of defending itself from Russian missile attacks, Ukraine is now helping lead an ambitious new effort to protect Europe. But first, today's afternoon spotlight. The US. Naval Blockade of Iran is now officially back up and running, beginning at 4 p.m. Eastern time today. At the same time, American airstrikes are continuing against Iranian military targets, with a particular focus on degrading the regime's ability to disrupt shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
That means striking coastal radar systems, missile batteries, naval facilities, drone infrastructure, and fast attack craft that Iran relies on to threaten commercial shipping. And as the blockade effort restarts, one American operation deserves a closer look. For the first time in combat, the US has used unmanned sea drones to attack an enemy naval facility.
According to US. Central Command, three American drone boats entered the port at Iran's Bandar Abbas naval base on Sunday and struck a submarine and ship maintenance facility. The vessels were sent on a one-way mission, essentially functioning as explosive drone boats directed into their targets. CENTCOM later released footage of the operation, describing it as the first combat use of one-way attack sea drones by the US military. The drone strike was only one part of a broader wave of American attacks, but it may also represent one of the most important technological developments to emerge from this conflict. The vessels used in the operation are known as Saronic Corsairs. The drones are built in Texas by defense startup Saronic. The 24-foot unmanned vessels can travel more than 1,100 miles, carry payloads of up to 1,000 pounds, and they cost less than $1 million each. Now, that last point is, of course, important. A modern destroyer can cost billions of dollars and carry hundreds of sailors. A drone boat and carries no crew is designed to be expendable and can be sent into heavily defended waters, of course, without risking American lives. If it reaches its target, it can inflict significant damage. If it's destroyed, well, the financial costs are comparatively small. That makes these systems particularly useful in places like the Strait Of Hormuz. Instead of sending a crewed warship directly toward regime targets, the US can send smaller unmanned vessels. Those boats force Iran to defend against fast moving targets approaching from the water, while simultaneously, of course, dealing with American aircraft or missiles and electronic warfare.
Now, the US didn't pioneer this type of warfare. Since 2022, Ukrainian forces have used explosive sea drones to attack Russian naval bases, warships, fuel infrastructure and the Kirch Bridge connecting Russia with occupied Crimea. Those operations forced much of Russia's Black Sea fleet away from its traditional bases and demonstrated that a country without a major navy could still challenge one of the world's largest maritime powers. More recently, Ukraine has expanded those attacks against Russian oil tankers and ferries, targeting the economic lifelines that help sustain Moscow's war effort.
Military planners around the world have been paying close attention, and this strike shows US military is rapidly incorporating those lessons into its own doctrine. The operation of Bandar Abbas offers a new glimpse of what that future could look like. Traditional airstrikes suppress enemy defenses, intelligence platforms identify targets, electronic warfare disrupts communications, then unmanned surface vessels move into strike ships and ports and coastal infrastructure, again, without placing American sailors directly in harm's way.
They also create a new defensive challenge for Iran. Every harbor entrance, every submarine pen, every naval repair yard and military pier must now be defended not only from missiles and aircraft, but also from small, inexpensive vessels approaching its sea level. And that is a complicated and expensive problem to solve. The technology, of course, isn't perfect. Sea drones can be jammed, they can lose communications, and they do carry smaller payloads than, of course, traditional warships. But those limitations haven't slowed investment in the new technology. The Pentagon is moving to acquire unmanned systems in large numbers as it prepares for possible future conflicts not only in the Middle East, but potentially in the Indo-Pacific as well. The lessons learned in Ukraine are increasingly shaping how the US military expects to fight tomorrow's wars.