Fighter From USS Abraham Lincoln Shoots Down Iranian Drone
A US Navy F-35C has shot down a drone which it said was threatening the US carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72). The incident took place in the Arabian Sea, ‘500 miles off the Iranian coast’ according to a CENTCOM spokesman, and it occurred hours before a subsequent failed interception incident in the Straits of Hormuz.
Several days ago, Iranian media associated with the IRGC took the unusual course of reproducing an open source social media story which depicted the course of an aerial vehicle identified as SEP2501, in effect acknowledging that the aerial vehicle was in fact an IRGC drone. Another track of the same SEP2501 was seen yesterday, captured by Iranian open source specialist @Mehdi H.
Whereas the IRGC was triumphant about the earlier SEP2501 flight, it has been less forthcoming about the SEP2501 flight yesterday, which appears to have ended somewhat abruptly. The flight pattern of the drone showed it cruising at an altitude of 12,000 feet, then increasing speed and dropping sharply to 3,000 feet before cruising at low altitude – a maneuver which might have been construed as being hostile.
It is not clear if SEP2501 was the drone shot down by the US F-35 from the USS Abraham Lincoln, but the drone, likely a Mohajer Shahed-139, has not yet reappeared. A second Iranian drone, an unarmed Karrar jet-powered reconnaissance drone UAV call sign KOME2703, has also been active in the same area, and its speed could also be construed as having a hostile component. Iranian media sources have not yet covered the drone shoot-down, information about which has so far only come from CENTCOM.
It has emerged that the later incident in the Straits of Hormuz, when the IRGC attempted to halt the progress of a vessel transiting the Straits of Hormuz, targeted the US-flagged Stena Imperative (IMO 9666077).
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The Stena Imperative, like sister ship Stena Immaculate (IMO 9693018) - damaged in a collision off Grimsby in March 2025 - is enrolled in the Department of Defense Tanker Security Program, which maintains stocks and supplies of fuel for US forces worldwide. At the time of the incident, USS McFaul (DDG-74) was close by, and came to the aid of the Stena Imperative.
At no time did the Stena Imperative enter Iranian waters, which the Traffic Separation Scheme shipping channel skirts closely at this point. It also appears that the two IRGC patrol craft which attempted the interception, supported by a Mohajer Shahed-139 drone, did not enter Omani territorial waters – which would then have prompted an Omani naval reaction.