Overview
- A U.S. Army AH-64 Apache crashed near the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday and both crew members were rescued alive and are in stable condition after roughly two hours of recovery operations.
- CENTCOM said a U.S. Navy Corsair unmanned surface vessel helped locate and recover the pilots, a detail officials highlighted as an example of growing unmanned-system use in contested waters.
- President Donald Trump publicly accused Iran of shooting down the Apache and directed a response that CENTCOM described as proportional self‑defense strikes launched Tuesday evening.
- Iranian state-linked outlets later reported explosions in southern coastal areas including Sirik, Qeshm and Bandar Abbas, but independent verification of targets, damage and casualties is limited.
- The episode raises the risk to fragile U.S.–Iran negotiations, threatens security in the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, and could prompt further military or diplomatic reprisals from Tehran.