The US military has announced that the first drone airboat will rescue helicopter crews

A drone boat picked up two US Army pilots in the waters near the Strait of Hormuz after their helicopter crashed, US military officials said in an interview with various news outlets. This appears to represent the first time the US military has used a sea rescue aircraft.

Two members of the US Army AH-64 Apache “were rescued by the American military” at 7:33 pm US Eastern Time after their plane went down on the coast of Oman on June 8, according to US Central Command. Press release. A press release reported support from US Navy units including the US 5th Fleet’s Task Force 59which is charged with integrating air, surface, and underwater vehicles, along with AI, into the 5th Fleet’s naval operations.

An unnamed US military official said this CBS news that the Apache pilots were rescued by an unmanned aerial drone operated by Task Force 59 from the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. The officials also said that this is the first time that the military has used an aircraft to rescue people in the water.

Likewise, an unnamed US official said ABC news that a drone with “speedboat-like graphics” picked up helicopter pilots in the water and brought them safely to land.

The New York Times was the first to report that the Apache helicopter went down and that the crew was rescued on June 8. But the newspaper cited an anonymous source “briefing on the incident” that “it was not immediately clear if the Apache was shot down by Iranian fire, failed to operate the clocks, or encountered some other problem.”