An US navy fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone nearing the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea after it approached the aircraft carrier ‘aggressively’. An Iranian drone approaching the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea was shot down by an United States Navy fighter jet on Tuesday, US Central Command said.
The Shahed-139 drone was shot down by an US Navy fighter jet F-35C stationed at Lincoln, which was sailing about 500 miles (800 kilometers) from Iran’s southern coast. The drone was ‘aggressively approaching’ the aircraft carrier with ‘unclear intent’ and ‘continued to fly toward the ship despite de-escalatory measures taken by US forces operating in international waters’, the statement read noting that no American troops were harmed and no equipment was damaged.
“An F-35C fighter jet from Abraham Lincoln shot down the Iranian drone in self-defense and to protect the aircraft carrier and personnel on board,” Central Command spokesman Captain Tim Hawkins said. The shootdown comes on the same day when a group of Iranian gunboats approached a US-flagged tanker in north of Oman, in the Strait of Hormuz.
The gunboats ordered the tanker, the Stena Imperative, to stop its engine and prepare to be boarded before it could speed up and continue sailing, maritime risk management group Vanguard. The tanker did not enter Iran’s internal territorial waters and was escorted by a US warship. According to Vanguard, an ivestigation is underway behind the incident that happened in the inbound Traffic Separation Scheme of the Strait of Hormuz, which links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea beyond.
Iran’s Fars news agency said that unnamed Iranian officials on Tuesday said that a vessel had entered Iranian territorial waters without the necessary legal permits, was warned and left the area “without any special security event taking place.” A total of three vessels, including two in 2023 and one in 2024 were seized by Iran near or in the Strait of Hormuz. Some of the seizures followed US seizures of tankers related to Iran.
