U.S. Navy Deploys GARC Drone Boats for First Combat Patrols Against Iran in Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. Navy has deployed GARC autonomous drone boats into combat patrols in the Strait of Hormuz under Operation Epic Fury.

U.S. Central Command confirmed the Maryland-built Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARC) is now conducting persistent patrol missions with the 5th Fleet as tensions with Iran escalate. The deployment follows months of testing and comes as Washington seeks to secure commercial shipping lanes after repeated attacks. Early reports indicate the vessels have already logged over 450 hours at sea, demonstrating endurance and real-world operational integration.

Read also: U.S. Navy Conducts First Partner-Ship Launch of Lightfish Surface Vessel in the Indian Ocean.

U.S. Navy GARC uncrewed surface vessels are now patrolling in support of Operation Epic Fury against Iran, marking the first confirmed U.S. combat-zone use of drone boats to expand surveillance and maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz (Picture source: U.S. DoW).

Reuters reported the GARCs have logged more than 450 underway hours and over 2,200 nautical miles, while Stars and Stripes said the deployment comes as Washington weighs how to restore commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz after Iranian attacks on shipping since the conflict began in late February. In military terms, the boats give U.S. 5th Fleet a persistent forward patrol and sensor layer that can stay on station without putting sailors into every close-in reconnaissance mission.

GARC is a compact but serious small USV rather than a mere demonstrator. BlackSea’s 2025 specification sheet describes a 4.8-meter craft with a 1.75-meter beam, 4,800-pound full-load displacement, 1,000-pound payload, 163 gallons of diesel, and a 200-horsepower engine. Claimed performance is 22 knots at cruise, 40 knots at sprint, and up to 700 nautical miles at cruise speed or 1,600 nautical miles at 5 knots, with operation in Sea State 5. For Gulf patrol work, that combination of endurance, dash speed, and seakeeping is more important than size.

Its autonomy architecture is equally important. BlackSea says GARC uses the MAPC2 control system for mission planning, autonomous navigation and remote control, with a line-of-sight emergency stop and an open architecture able to integrate third-party software and government-furnished equipment. In practical fleet terms, that means GARC is not just a remote-controlled speedboat; it is a modular node designed to sit inside a wider command-and-control, ISR and communications web, which is exactly the operating concept Task Force 59 has been building in the Gulf since 2021.

The question of armament needs to be handled precisely. No public U.S. statement has identified a weapon fitted to the GARCs now patrolling against Iran, and Reuters explicitly said there was no indication they had been used for offensive strikes. Even so, the boats can be configured for surveillance or kamikaze-style missions, while BlackSea markets GARC for surface warfare, mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare, communications relay and offboard vehicle deployment. The most accurate reading is that the platform’s “armament” lies in scalable combat payload capacity, not in a publicly disclosed fixed weapon fit.

That design gives GARC real tactical value in the Gulf battlespace. A five-meter craft with autonomous control, meaningful payload margin and long endurance is well suited to shadowing fast inshore attack craft, investigating suspicious contacts, extending a mesh network, cueing manned ships or aircraft, and operating as a forward scout in choke-point security operations. Because BlackSea also advertises ISR, communications relay and offboard drone deployment, the boat can function as a distributed sensor and gateway rather than merely a disposable attack craft. That is a more sustainable combat role for daily patrol work around Hormuz than a one-way explosive concept.

The development path to this point has been unusually compressed. U.S. 5th Fleet created Task Force 59 in September 2021 to accelerate unmanned and AI integration, then used Digital Horizon in 2022 to test multiple systems and push toward a standing unmanned surface fleet focused on maritime awareness. In October 2023, Exercise Digital Talon marked the first use of lethal munitions from a USV in the Middle East, when a MARTAC T-38 Devil Ray launched a Lethal Miniature Aerial Missile System under human supervision from ashore. Task Group 59.1 followed in January 2024 to move these tools from experimentation toward routine operational deployment.

GARC’s own maturation continued through 2025. NIWC Atlantic used the craft in Exercise Southern Lightning for communications and unmanned integration work with USS Cole, and senior Navy leadership publicly emphasized small USVs as a force multiplier for future naval warfare. But the program also hit turbulence: collision and software issues during testing, operational reliability concerns, and setbacks in autonomous software integration all slowed progress. Combat patrols off Iran, therefore, represent not just a deployment, but a real-world validation attempt after a difficult test cycle.

This is why the present use is different from what the United States normally does with unmanned surface systems. Traditionally, U.S. Navy employment in the Gulf has emphasized maritime domain awareness, manned-unmanned teaming, and tightly supervised demonstrations; even earlier live-fire events kept a human operator ashore in the engagement loop. The GARC missions in Operation Epic Fury are different because they place a compact autonomous boat into a live conflict as a recurring patrol asset, not simply as a trial platform. It is a shift from proving autonomy to relying on it for day-to-day operational presence.

It is also different from the maritime drone model made famous by Ukraine. Ukrainian forces used explosive-laden speedboats largely as one-way strike systems against major naval targets, whereas the U.S. approach visible here appears more conservative and more network-centric: persistent patrol, sensing, relay, optional strike potential, and integration with manned forces. For a navy that still thinks in terms of layered task groups and command networks, that is a characteristically American way of absorbing the sea-drone lesson—less spectacular than a suicide boat attack, but potentially more useful for sustaining pressure in a long chokepoint fight.

In the Strait of Hormuz, which has direct strategic value. The waterway compresses commercial shipping, naval patrols and Iranian asymmetric forces into a narrow battlespace where warning time is short and contact density is high. An autonomous patrol craft that can remain forward, classify traffic, pass targeting-quality data and absorb some of the friction of daily presence operations helps the U.S. impose maritime order at lower cost. It also complicates Iranian planning by multiplying the number of American sensors and potential cueing points afloat across the 5th Fleet operating area.

The deeper significance is that GARC shows how a modest hull can create an outsized operational effect when tied to data fusion, distributed scouting and attritable presence. The U.S. Navy is effectively fielding a maritime equivalent of the broader Pentagon push toward low-cost, networked combat mass: not a destroyer substitute, but a force multiplier that can widen surveillance, complicate Iranian small-boat tactics and preserve high-end platforms for decisive missions. Readers following Army Recognition’s reporting on Task Force 59, the Navy’s earlier armed-USV trials, and CENTCOM’s fast-track drone adaptation will recognize this deployment as a transition point: U.S. maritime autonomy is no longer just being tested in the Middle East; it is being operationalized under fire.