US forces began rehearsing sea-drone operations for water rescues long before an uncrewed vessel actually retrieved two soldiers after their Apache helicopter came under fire in the Middle East earlier this month.

A US military official told Business Insider that while medevac scenarios can be practiced in training, carrying out the task successfully during an actual crisis brings added value that exercises alone cannot replicate.

The official, who spoke without attribution, provided details on the early June mission in which a Navy sea drone recovered two American crew members after Iran downed their AH-64 Apache near the coast of Oman.

The effort marked the first operational use of its kind for the US military and featured an uncrewed surface vessel directed by Task Force 59, the Navy group charged with folding drones and artificial intelligence into Middle East maritime activities.

When Task Force 59 stood up in 2021, planners aimed to evaluate new technologies, especially surface drones where American experience lagged behind other unmanned systems, to determine their best fit for routine fleet tasks, the official explained.

That work included close collaboration with manufacturers during joint exercises across the region. One drill conducted several years ago in the Gulf of Aqaba examined the idea of employing naval drones for medical evacuation by moving a simulated patient from a vessel to shore for further care.

The official noted that planners considered using drones to assist personnel movement and medical evacuations from the earliest stages of integrating these platforms into area operations.

President Donald Trump stated on June 9 that Iran had downed an Apache helicopter during a patrol over the Strait of Hormuz. The military reported that the two crew members were recovered off Oman within about two hours.

US forces tracked the crew location and maintained contact while seeking the right moment to extract them with available assets, the official said.

Among those assets was a Corsair USV, a 24-foot surface drone built by Texas firm Saronic Technologies. The vessel played a key part in the search-and-rescue effort even though many other platforms were involved.

Once alongside, the crew members climbed aboard the drone, which then shifted them to a new position on the water because of operational needs, the official said without providing further specifics.

From that second location the soldiers could be lifted by helicopter and taken ashore for additional treatment, the official added.

The rescue unfolded against a wider effort by the United States and partners to weave drones into naval work. Ukraine's deployment of similar vessels against Russian ships in the Black Sea has accelerated that focus.

Outside the Middle East, where uncrewed surface vessels have mainly supported intelligence and surveillance tasks, the Navy has increased drone training and activity in European waters over the past several years.

The official described the Apache rescue as clear proof of the worth of folding these vessels into daily operations and as a meaningful expansion of the surface-drone mission set.

Although this particular mission was unusual, drone-supported casualty evacuations are not unprecedented. Ukrainian forces routinely employ uncrewed ground robots to pull wounded troops from the battlefield.

As warfare grows more autonomous, such missions are expected to occur more often. Western militaries are already preparing. NATO held an industry event in London last December to explore solutions for medical care and evacuation in environments crowded with drones.