U.S. Navy F-35C shoots down Iranian drone as IRGC boats threaten U.S.-flagged tanker near Hormuz

MANAMA, Bahrain —

A U.S. Navy F-35C fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that the Pentagon said was closing on an American aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday, hours before Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessels threatened to board a U.S.-flagged tanker near the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. officials said.

The incidents, which unfolded hundreds of miles apart but within the same day, marked one of the most serious maritime confrontations between the United States and Iran in several years and underscored how drones and commercial shipping have become central flashpoints in their long-running standoff.

U.S. Central Command said an F-35C launched from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln fired on an unmanned aircraft identified as an Iranian Shahed-139 after it approached the carrier strike group in what officials described as an unsafe manner in international airspace.

“The drone aggressively approached the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group with unclear intent and continued closing despite de-escalatory measures,” a U.S. military official said, summarizing the command’s statement. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational details.

No injuries or damage to U.S. personnel or equipment were reported.

Tanker confrontation near the Strait of Hormuz

Within hours, U.S. forces were again on alert as two fast-attack boats from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy and at least one Mohajer surveillance drone closed on the M/V Stena Imperative, a U.S.-flagged, U.S.-crewed chemical and product tanker transiting in or near the Strait of Hormuz.

According to Central Command, the IRGC boats approached the tanker at high speed and ordered the crew over radio to stop their engines and prepare to be boarded. The Stena Imperative instead increased speed and maintained its course in what American officials said remained international waters roughly 16 nautical miles off the coast of Oman.

The guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul responded to the ship’s distress call and moved to escort the tanker, while U.S. Air Force aircraft provided air cover overhead. The Revolutionary Guard vessels and drone withdrew without further incident, and the tanker continued its passage toward ports in the Gulf.

Rear Adm. George Wikoff, the top U.S. naval officer in the Middle East, said in a brief statement that American forces “acted to ensure the safety of a U.S.-flagged merchant vessel lawfully transiting a vital international waterway” and would continue to “defend freedom of navigation against attempts at interference or seizure.”

Iran’s response and a broader buildup

Iran has not publicly confirmed the shoot-down of the Shahed-139 but has acknowledged the loss of a drone mission over the Arabian Sea. State-aligned media in Tehran described the flight as a routine surveillance operation that had already gathered and transmitted imagery of foreign naval vessels before its communications were “interrupted.”

Iranian commentators have portrayed the drone’s presence as legitimate reconnaissance in international airspace and cast the U.S. action as a provocative escalation near Iran’s maritime approaches.

The twin episodes come as the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group operates in the Arabian Sea roughly 500 miles off Iran’s southern coast after being redeployed from the Indo-Pacific in January. The Pentagon has recently concentrated about a dozen U.S. warships and dozens of combat aircraft in and around the Gulf, saying the buildup is meant to deter Iran amid concerns about its advancing nuclear program and activity across the region.

They also arrive as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has publicly called for what he described as “fair and equitable” negotiations over Iran’s nuclear activities, and as U.S. and Iranian officials explore the possibility of new talks hosted by regional intermediaries such as Turkey or Oman. U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to meet Iranian counterparts in the coming weeks, though neither side has announced firm dates.

Drones, cost, and escalation risk

The shoot-down appears to be among the first publicly acknowledged air-to-air engagements by a U.S. Navy F-35C against a state-linked platform. The carrier-capable variant of the F-35, with its larger wings and reinforced landing gear, has been gradually integrating into routine carrier air wings, and Tuesday’s incident underscores its emerging role in defending the fleet against drones and other aerial threats.

By contrast, the drone it destroyed belongs to a family of Iranian unmanned systems that have proliferated across the region and beyond. The Shahed line includes surveillance, combat and so-called one-way attack drones that have seen extensive use by Iranian forces and their partners. U.S. officials say the Shahed-139 is a larger and more capable platform than earlier variants, with potential to carry explosives for strike missions, though Iran typically highlights its reconnaissance uses.

The encounter highlights the widening cost and technology gap in these engagements: a multi-role stealth jet worth tens of millions of dollars intercepting a relatively inexpensive unmanned aircraft whose price is measured in the tens or hundreds of thousands.

Echoes of 2019 and renewed shipping fears

The Stena Imperative confrontation revives memories of a tense summer in 2019, when IRGC forces seized another tanker from the same Swedish company, the British-flagged Stena Impero, in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran at the time accused that vessel of maritime violations, but Western governments widely viewed the seizure as retaliation for the detention of an Iranian tanker off Gibraltar.

The Stena Imperative now sails under the U.S. flag and is registered in Jacksonville, Florida, placing it under U.S. jurisdiction and making interference with the ship especially sensitive in Washington. The vessel is part of Stena Bulk’s IMOIIMAX class of medium-range tankers designed to carry refined petroleum products, chemicals and vegetable oils.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy has a history of using swarms of small, heavily armed speedboats, along with mines and drones, to harass and at times detain commercial shipping in the narrow waters of the Persian Gulf and the approaches to Hormuz. In July 2023, the McFaul also intervened to deter what U.S. officials said were two separate Iranian attempts to seize foreign oil tankers near Oman, one of which came under fire.

U.S. officials say both of Tuesday’s incidents occurred outside any state’s 12-nautical-mile territorial sea and therefore in international waters, framing the F-35C strike and the McFaul’s actions as lawful self-defense and protection of freedom of navigation.

Iran has long argued that heavy foreign military presence near its shores is destabilizing and says it has a right to monitor and, in some cases, inspect vessels it suspects of violations such as fuel smuggling or sanctions evasion. Iranian officials have not offered a detailed public account of the interaction with the Stena Imperative.

Why it matters

The latest confrontations fit a pattern of maritime friction that has periodically surged since at least 2019. That June, Iran shot down a high-altitude U.S. RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drone near the Strait of Hormuz, saying it had violated Iranian airspace. U.S. officials insisted the drone was over international waters. Weeks later, the United States said the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer brought down an Iranian drone that had flown too close; Iran denied losing any aircraft.

Analysts say the growing use of drones on both sides increases the risk of miscalculation, especially in crowded sea lanes where military and commercial traffic often overlap and where communications may be sporadic or misinterpreted.

Even an unmanned shoot-down carries escalation risks, in part because each government faces domestic political pressure not to appear weak. The presence of civilian mariners aboard tankers like the Stena Imperative adds a further layer of danger, recalling past episodes in which crews were detained for weeks or months or caught in the middle of standoffs.

The Strait of Hormuz remains the world’s most critical energy chokepoint. Roughly one-fifth of globally traded crude oil and a significant share of liquefied natural gas move through its narrow channel between Iran and Oman. Repeated incidents of harassment and attempted seizures there can raise shipping insurance premiums, alter routing decisions and heighten volatility in energy markets even without a successful attack.

U.S. officials have signaled they intend to keep substantial naval forces in the region for the foreseeable future.

“We will take all necessary measures to protect our forces and ensure that U.S.-flagged commercial vessels can operate safely in international waters,” a Pentagon spokesperson said.

For now, both sides insist they do not seek war. But as a stealth fighter fires on a drone over the open Arabian Sea and a U.S.-flagged tanker calls for help with Revolutionary Guard gunboats closing in, the narrow band between routine patrols and open conflict in the Gulf appears to be tightening, even as diplomats quietly search for space to talk.