Georgia Howe

But Iran's foreign minister did post on X Yesterday that foreign forces in the region are at a constant risk on account of their own human errors, plane accidents, or potentially being caught in a crossfire.

President Trump was more blunt.

He said Iran was behind the downed Apache, and that, quote, "...the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack."

He also confirmed that the two pilots of the downed aircraft were rescued and are safe.

Well, the Apache crew was out on patrol near the Hormuz Strait when it went down.

The military said it would investigate the crash, but earlier reports say that it was caused by an Iranian Shahed drone.

After that, the U.S.

military was in a race to find the downed airmen before the Iranian forces could get to them.

And in order to win that race, the U.S.

used unmanned drones to locate the pilots and even transport them to a safe pickup location.

From what we know so far, the airmen were found by a U.S.

Navy unmanned surface vessel, essentially a boat drone, after they had spent about two hours floating in the strait.

The drone took them to shore, where the pilots were picked up by helicopter and taken for a medical exam.

That mission marked the first time that surface drones had been used in a rescue operation like that.

It's a pretty new technology for the military.

The unmanned vessel is part of Task Force 59, which the Navy launched in 2021 to incorporate more drone tech like the unmanned surface vessels.

The Navy began to deploy their drone boats back in March.

Well, it's certainly a step back for the ceasefire, and it easily could have ended it.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that Trump has told aides he would end the ceasefire if Iran killed an American service member.

So we'll have to see what kind of effect this attack has on the negotiation process.