US President Donald Trump said that he had promised that no more representatives of the Iranian leadership would be eliminated. His statement comes against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict between Washington and Tehran and the expansion of the US military presence with unmanned maritime systems.
Trump made the statement at an election rally in Bullhead City, Arizona. He did not specify who asked him to make the promise.
„I was forced to promise that I would not eliminate anyone again, and I did it“, Trump said.According to the US president, representatives of the first and second levels of the Iranian leadership are no longer alive, and half of the leaders of the third level have also been eliminated. These assessments were presented by Trump, without being supported by specific data in his statement.
A few days earlier, Trump said that the US and Israel may have gone too far with their actions against the Iranian leadership. According to him, this makes it difficult to establish contact with representatives of Tehran with whom to conduct negotiations.
Unmanned ship as part of an aircraft carrier group
Along with the political signals, Washington continues to expand the use of autonomous systems in naval operations. The unmanned surface ship Seahawk is deployed with the aircraft carrier strike group Theodore Roosevelt.
According to Inside Defense, this is the first American aircraft carrier strike group to deploy with a large unmanned surface ship. The Seahawk was developed by the American company Leidos and has already participated in the Rim of the Pacific exercises.
I.d. US Navy Secretary Hung Kao described the system as a means of increasing the group's combat capabilities.
“It's a combat power multiplier; imagine having more guns,“ said Kao.The Seahawk has been used as an autonomous surveillance and reconnaissance platform, and the US Navy is developing similar systems for mine countermeasures and other tasks. The ship moved from experimental development to the US Navy in April.