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Iran Releases Footage of "World's First" Sub-Launched Suicide Drone

Sub launched drone
Courtesy Iranian Ministry of Defense

Published Feb 12, 2025 3:20 PM by The Maritime Executive

Iran's defense ministry has released footage of what it claims to be the world's first submarine-launched loitering munition (suicide drone). A brief video run by state news shows a delivery device emerging from below the water, then blowing off its nosecone and ejecting a folding-wing drone into the air. 

The ministry said that - unlike most drones - this munition is autonomous. Once launched, it operates without a man in the loop or human remote control, and finds and destroys its target using AI. This eliminates the need for a radio link to a control station, reducing vulnerability to electronic countermeasures. 

For Western operators, AI-controlled lethal munitions are a matter of ethical concern, but the U.S. and many other nations are moving ahead rapidly in developing the technology - led by Ukraine and Russia. Both militaries have thousands of hours of combat video feed from drone operators on the front line in Ukraine, and that footage is key for training AI models how to identify real military targets.

Iran has an active and well-developed drone program, and has previously used long-range loitering munitions to attack shipping. It has even converted a small boxship into a "drone carrier" specifically for this purpose. its proxy force in Yemen - the Houthi rebel group - has used hundreds of shore-launched drones to attack Western merchant vessels and warships in the Red Sea. If practical in real-world use, Iran's new submarine-launched drone could begin its flight from a position closer to the target vessel, reducing the time available to detect and defeat it.  

Iran's ministry of defense claims that the new AI-driven drone can be launched from an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), increasing stealth and lowering risk to Iranian personnel. The underwater delivery device portrayed in Wednesday's video bears visual similarity to Iran's small torpedo-shaped AUV, evidence of which has been captured by U.S. forces in the Houthi conflict.