• US forces started practicing conducting at-sea rescue missions with naval drones several years ago.
• These rehearsals were put to use earlier this month after Iran downed a US Apache helicopter.
• A US military official called the first-of-its-kind rescue mission a "significant step forward."

US forces began practicing using sea drones for water rescue missions years before an uncrewed vessel saved two soldiers after their Apache helicopter was shot down in the Middle East this month.

"You can rehearse medevac scenarios during exercises," a US military official told Business Insider, but to successfully execute that capability in a real emergency situation, "there's something to be said about that."

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to share insight into the unusual early June rescue mission, during which a US Navy sea drone picked up two American crew members after Iran shot down their AH-64 Apache off the coast of Oman.

The rescue mission — an operational first for the US military — involved an uncrewed surface vessel, or USV, operated by Task Force 59, a Navy unit focused on integrating drones and artificial intelligence into naval operations in the Middle East.

When the Navy launched Task Force 59 in 2021, one of its goals was to test emerging technologies — particularly USVs, with which the US had less experience compared to some other drones — "to see how they could be optimized" for everyday naval operations, the military official said.

To do that, the US military worked closely with USV manufacturers during exercises with partners in the Middle East. One such drill, held a few years ago in the Gulf of Aqaba, south of Israel, tested the concept of using naval drones for medical evacuation. The simulation involved transporting a "patient" from a ship to the shore for follow-up treatment and care.

The military official said "the concept of using drones to support personnel transport — and, in particular, support medical evacuations — is something that was thought about very early on as these systems were integrated into regional operations by the US."

A 'significant step forward'

President Donald Trump said on June 9 that Iran had shot down an Apache helicopter while it was patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz. The US military said the two American crew members were rescued off the coast of Oman within roughly two hours.

The US knew the Apache crew's location and had established contact with the soldiers while looking for an opportunity to rescue them using assets from across the military, the official said.

Among the assets available were tactical aircraft and a Corsair USV, a 24-foot-long surface drone made by Texas-based Saronic Technologies. The official said this vessel, while just one platform in a broader effort, played an "integral role" in the search-and-rescue mission.

When the vessel arrived, the Apache crew members were able to hoist themselves into the USV, which had the capability and proximity to move the crew from one location on the water to another — a necessary switch because of "operational circumstances," the official said, declining to elaborate.

Once they were moved to the second location, the soldiers could then be "feasibly" lifted by helicopter to be transferred ashore for additional treatment, the official added.

The maritime rescue mission comes amid a broader push by Washington and its allies to integrate drones into naval operations. Ukraine's use of USVs against the Russian Navy in the Black Sea has given these efforts greater urgency.

Beyond the Middle East, where US forces have primarily used uncrewed surface vessels for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, the Navy has also been expanding its naval drone training and operations in Europe in recent years.

The military official said the Apache rescue is a "clear demonstration" of the value of integrating USVs into everyday naval operations and marks a "significant step forward" for the US in expanding its surface drone mission portfolio.

While the Apache rescue mission was out of the ordinary, casualty evacuations using drones aren't a new concept. Ukraine regularly uses uncrewed ground robots, or UGVs, to rescue wounded soldiers from the battlefield.

Warfare is becoming increasingly autonomous, and there are indications that missions like these could become more common as time goes on. Western militaries are taking note. Last December, for instance, NATO hosted an event in London to source industry solutions for battlefield treatment and evacuation in drone-saturated environments.

• Russia said one of its warships fired warning shots at a British civilian yacht on Sunday.
• The frigate Admiral Grigorovich was in the English Channel when it opened fire with small arms.
• A retired British couple said they were sailing on the yacht when they encountered the frigate.

A Russian frigate opened fire in the English Channel on Tuesday, firing warning shots with small arms near a UK-registered civilian yacht, London and Moscow said.

The warship Admiral Grigorovich fired several shots — single rounds, not automatic fire — near the Bright Future, a sailing yacht, roughly 20 nautical miles south of the Isle of Wight outside UK territorial waters.

The UK assesses that the Grigorovich was signaling to other vessels that it was drifting instead of maneuvering under power, possibly leaving the warship feeling vulnerable. It sounded warnings before opening fire.

"Following attempts to contact a British vessel in the channel, the Grigorovich fired warning shots," a UK defense ministry spokesperson told Business Insider. "These were not aimed at the vessel and were an attempt to prevent a possible collision."

Russia's defense ministry said the frigate had attempted to contact the Bright Future with radio, signal flares, and sound signals, but opened fire after receiving no response and seeing the yacht "following a dangerous course."

"After closing the distance to 150 meters, the frigate's commander decided to carry out the preemptive fire at the vessel's course with small arms," Moscow said.

A retired British couple on board the Bright Future told the BBC that the two vessels were not on a collision course and that the yacht had adjusted its path after the Admiral Grigorovich issued five horn blasts.

The incident follows the UK's Royal Marines' separate seizure of the MV Smyrtos, a tanker believed to be part of Russia's shadow fleet, off the southern coast of England on Sunday.

The boarding operation was a first for the UK, involving two British warships, reconnaissance aircraft, and helicopters.

While both events occurred in the English Channel, the UK defense ministry said that the seizure and Tuesday's warning shots from the Admiral Grigorovich were isolated incidents.

"HMS Mersey has been monitoring the Russian vessel, and support has been provided to the crew of the yacht," the defense ministry spokesperson said.

Still, the Russian navy has been repeatedly reported to be escorting shadow fleet tankers in convoys. The Admiral Grigorovich, part of the Black Sea Fleet, was spotted convoying two tankers in the English Channel in April, just after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer had given British forces the authority to seize shadow fleet vessels.

Retired Royal Navy Commodore Steve Prest, now an associate fellow at the UK's Royal United Services Institute, said it is possible that the Grigorovich's commanding officer decided to open fire after they got too nervous about an unresponsive yacht near the warship.

However, Prest said in comments shared with Business Insider, given the context of the shadow fleet and the Royal Marines' seizure of the Smyrtos, "I think this is the Russians baring their teeth," adding that Moscow "very rarely will do something like this in an uncalculated, haphazard way."

Prest said Russia may be trying to signal to other ships preparing to go through the English Channel: "Hey, look, we are here, we are serious, and we are prepared to stand our ground, so let's not have any miscalculation."

The 409-foot-long guided-missile frigate is the lead ship of its class and was commissioned in 2016. The ship's main armament consists of eight vertical launch cells for land-attack cruise missiles and a 100mm naval gun.

June 16, 2026: This story was updated to reflect comment from the UK Defense Ministry.

• Ukraine is looking to inflict at least 200 Russian casualties for every square kilometer Moscow captures.
• Its forces have hit this target in recent months as they stymy Russian battlefield advances.
• Ukraine's defense chief attributed this to its mid-range strikes and Russia's loss of Starlink.

Ukraine is aiming to inflict at least 200 Russian casualties for every square kilometer that Moscow captures on the battlefield. Gains have become increasingly costly for Russian forces in recent months.

"Each kilometer of advance costs the enemy disproportionately high losses," Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov recently told reporters during a meeting to discuss the results of combat operations so far this year.

The Russian military lost 67 soldiers — killed or wounded — per square kilometer of advance in October 2025. This has increased to 165 in January, 244 in February, 254 in March, and 179 in April, Fedorov said, adding that Moscow suffered 35,203 casualties in April alone.

"Our strategic goal is to inflict at least 200 enemy losses for every square kilometer of advance," he said. "Dynamics show that Ukraine has significantly slowed the enemy's advance and is gradually regaining the initiative. At the same time, we are increasing active operations and liberating territory."

Fedorov attributed the uptick in Russian casualties to several factors, including Elon Musk's decision to disable Starlink satellite internet service for Russian forces in February. Moscow has been unable to replace this capability, allowing Ukraine to exploit the situation on the battlefield, the defense minister added.

Another factor is Ukraine's push to build out an arsenal of mid-range strike drones, hitting Russian targets at an operational depth that prevents its forces from carrying out assault operations on the front lines.

"We have actively begun procuring mid-strike drones, which have become one of the key technological advantages on the front line," Fedorov said.

Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think tank, assessed that these developments have led to a steady decline in Russia's rate of advance on the battlefield since November 2025. They also cited repeated Ukrainian ground counterattacks as a contributing factor.

The ISW conflict analysts reported in early May that "Russian forces in April 2026 suffered a net loss of territory controlled in the Ukrainian theater for the first time" since Kyiv's 2024 incursion into Russia's Kursk region.

They said Russia lost control of 116 square kilometers in April, though this figure does not account for areas where its troops briefly infiltrated into Ukrainian territory.

Russia occupied nearly 27% of Ukraine weeks after launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022, a peak that it has since been unable to return to. Four years later, in March 2026, this figure had dropped to below 20%, according to ISW data.

During that time, Russia has accumulated roughly 1.3 million battlefield losses, Col. Joby Rimmer, a senior UK military advisor, said in late April.

Ukraine, by contrast, has suffered an estimated 500,000 to 600,000 casualties in this war, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a US-based think tank.

Ukrainian officials have signaled their intention to increasingly replace humans with robotic systems, including drones, wherever possible near the front lines, especially for logistics missions.

• Russia has equipped its cheap "Molniya" strike drones with more battery power and better cameras.
• The modifications allow Russia to use these drones for a new purpose — battlefield reconnaissance.
• Moscow doesn't need to rely too heavily on its more expensive reconnaissance drones.

Russia has boosted the range and vision of its fixed-wing Molniya drones, turning cheap, crude aircraft into more capable platforms that can now scout as well as strike in Ukraine.

The upgrades let Moscow lean more on the Molniya ("lightning" in Russian) for battlefield reconnaissance, replacing the pricier surveillance drones like the Supercam and Orlan-10.

Russia has been equipping some of its Molniyas with additional batteries to extend their range, a high-definition camera, and a mesh modem for better communications, Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, an advisor to Ukraine's defense ministry, told Business Insider.

The Molniyas have historically been considered one-way attack drones that carry a warhead and explode on impact. They have been adapted for other missions, though, including carrying smaller first-person-view (FPV) quadcopters, resembling a mothership.

Beskrestnov, a prominent Ukrainian drone warfare expert, said Russia began operating newly modified Molniyas around two months ago and has increasingly used them for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) purposes since then.

The Molniya ISR variant lacks a warhead and is instead equipped with advanced surveillance electronics, including a microcomputer and a rotating camera with a 10-fold optical zoom, according to a US military weapons information portal.

The modified Molniyas are significantly cheaper than the more traditional fixed-wing Supercam S-350 or the Zala Z-16, well-known Russian reconnaissance drones estimated to cost up to $100,000 apiece. The inexpensive Molniyas are made of light materials such as plywood, foam, and aluminum.

Beskrestnov said that Russia can obtain 10-15 Molniyas for the same price. The saturation of Ukrainian interceptor drones over the battlefield has pushed Moscow to opt for cheaper, more expendable assets for reconnaissance and targeting.

He speculated that this shift is driven by increased Ukrainian interceptor activity.

Dimko Zhluktenko, a soldier in Ukraine's 413th Unmanned Systems Regiment, said the modified Molniya drones are relatively easy to manufacture, giving Russia an ideal price for reconnaissance missions. He called these efforts "the war of scale" in a social media post earlier this month.

Neither Russia's defense ministry nor its US embassy responded to a request for comment on the Molniya ISR developments.

Russia and Ukraine have been constantly modifying their drones during the war to try to gain an advantage before the other side either catches up with the technology or develops a defensive countermeasure.

One of the biggest changes is a shift from radio links — easily jammed — to fiber-optic cables that are largely immune to the electronic warfare saturating the battlefield.

These fiber-optic cables have primarily been used to operate smaller FPV drones. However, Russia has begun using them with larger, fixed-wing platforms such as the Molniya.

Russia and Ukraine have taken their innovations a step further with unusual armaments, in some cases equipping drones with air-to-air or surface-to-air missiles to hunt down aircraft.

• The US military has stepped up its efforts to target Iran's mines, drone boats, and torpedoes.
• This comes after US officials said American strikes destroyed dozens of Iranian ships.
• These tactical efforts reflect an effort to curb Iran's ability to attack the Strait of Hormuz.

The US military is broadly targeting Iran's naval combat capabilities, expanding strikes beyond just warships to mines, drone boats, and torpedoes, the admiral overseeing the Middle East operations said on Monday.

Adm. Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, reiterated in a video statement that eliminating Iran's "naval threats" is one of three military objectives of the American strike campaign, which just surpassed the two-week mark.

Cooper shared imagery showing the aftermath of recent US airstrikes on military sites, among which were a naval drone storage facility and buildings used to produce light- and heavy-weight torpedoes.

The US also hit more than 90 military targets on Kharg Island off the coast of Iran over the weekend, destroying storage bunkers for naval mines, among other targets, Cooper said.

Kharg Island is located roughly 300 miles from the strategic Strait of Hormuz and is the centerpiece of Iran's vast oil sector, handling 90% of its crude exports.

President Donald Trump said last week that the US military operation spared Iranian oil infrastructure at Kharg Island, although he threatened to reconsider if Iran decides to interfere with shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a small body of water between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman that serves as one of the world's most important naval choke points.

"We're also zeroed in on dismantling Iran's decades-old threat to the free flow of commerce through the Strait of Hormuz," Cooper said Monday. "Through a combination of air, land, and maritime capabilities, we have successfully destroyed over 100 Iranian naval vessels, and we aren't done."

The US military said last week that it had damaged or destroyed more than 60 Iranian ships and 30 minelayers since the start of Operation Epic Fury on February 28. Satellite imagery obtained by Business Insider shows several destroyed vessels in Iran's ports in the early days of the war.

US forces have used MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) to sink multiple Iranian ships, including a submarine, Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters on Friday.

The expansion of airstrikes beyond warships reflects the Trump administration's efforts to restrict Iran's ability to threaten the Strait of Hormuz and other waterways, where the Iranians are more likely to fight with covert, asymmetrical capabilities than traditional surface combatants.

American and Israeli strikes have killed hundreds of people and wounded thousands more in Iran, while Tehran's missile and drone attacks have killed dozens in Israel and the Gulf states, according to local health ministries, officials, and media reports.

Meanwhile, at least 13 US service members have been killed, with at least 140 wounded, since the start of combat operations against Iran. The most recent losses were the six crew members who died after their KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in Iraq on Thursday.

• A US Navy destroyer used an SM-3 interceptor to down an Iranian ballistic missile on Friday.
• It's the third time in two weeks that a Navy destroyer used the SM-3 to defend NATO airspace.
• SM-3s are among are top missile interceptors, but they come with a hefty price tag.

US Navy destroyers operating in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea have been launching SM-3s — among America's most high-end interceptors — to defend NATO airspace against incoming Iranian ballistic missiles.

On Friday, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Oscar Austin fired at least one SM-3, or Standard Missile-3, interceptor to bring down an Iranian ballistic missile in Turkish airspace, a defense official told Business Insider.

It marked the third time since February 28, when the US and Israel started striking Iran, that a Navy destroyer has used an SM-3 to down an Iranian missile in Turkish airspace, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss military developments.

Turkey's national defense ministry said earlier that NATO air and missile defense assets deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean intercepted the Iranian missile. There were no casualties or injuries, although debris fell in the southern city of Gaziantep.

Turkey hosts several important bases for American and NATO forces, including Incirlik and Konya air bases, and an Iranian strike against those facilities could trigger a significant escalation in a war that has already spread across the Middle East.

The Oscar Austin is one of three American destroyers currently positioned in the Eastern Mediterranean. The use of SM-3 interceptors comes amid broader air defense operations across the Middle East. The US and its allies in the region have shot down thousands of Iranian missiles and drones since the start of Operation Epic Fury less than two weeks ago.

The SM-3 uses a kinetic kill vehicle to destroy short- to intermediate-range missiles during the midcourse phase of flight. It can engage targets in space, unlike the Navy's other interceptors, and is outfitted on Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and Ticonderoga-class cruisers.

There are multiple variants of the SM-3, manufactured by US defense giant RTX and, for the latest variant, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

US destroyers first used their SM-3s in combat in April 2024 to defend Israel from an Iranian missile attack, and the US Navy fired them again several months later in October after another barrage from Tehran.

These interceptor missiles don't come cheap, though. The SM-3 Block IB variant, for instance, is estimated to cost roughly $10 million on the low end, while the newer Block IIA costs around $28 million.

It's unclear how many SM-3s the Navy has expended during combat in the Middle East. Air defense doctrine can call for firing at least two interceptors for each incoming missile, so the bill for the latest engagements above Turkey could already be substantial.

Navy leadership has warned in recent years that the US has been firing its SM-3s at an alarming rate. Service officials have warned that they need a lot more of these interceptors to counter threats in the Pacific, such as China and its theater ballistic missiles.

• A KC-135 refueling aircraft "went down" in Iraq, the US military announced Thursday evening.
• A second unidentified aircraft was involved but landed safely.
• All six crew members were killed in the crash, the military said Friday.

The US military said on Friday that all six crew members were killed after their KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in Iraq on Thursday.

The deaths mark the US Air Force's first losses since the start of Operation Epic Fury on February 28.

Seven other US service members have been killed in action during the war, with at least 140 others injured. Many of them have returned to duty; some, however, were more seriously wounded.

CENTCOM said it is investigating the KC-135 incident, which occurred at roughly 2 p.m. ET on Thursday in western Iraq. It said that the "loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire."

"The identities of the service members are being withheld until 24 hours after next of kin have been notified," the military said.

The US first acknowledged on Thursday that it had lost a KC-135 refueling aircraft supporting the combat operations against Iran. A second aircraft involved in the incident landed safely.

This crash marks the fourth American aircraft loss since the start of Epic Fury, the Pentagon's name for US operations against Iran, nearly two weeks ago.

Just days into the war, CENTCOM announced that three US F-15E Strike Eagles were downed by friendly fire over Kuwait. The aircraft were lost, but all six aircrew members ejected safely.

The KC-135 Stratotanker is an Air Force asset that supports the broader joint force by refueling other aircraft — including fighter jets, bombers, and cargo aircraft — in notoriously complex midair refueling operations.

It is essentially a flying gas station that executes fuel transfers at high speed with aircraft in proximity.

March 13, 2026 — This story has been updated with the latest information from US Central Command, which has revealed the loss of all crew members.