After the Iranian Drone Was Shot Down: How Tehran Monitors the U.S. Naval Presence in the Region

As the United States intensifies its naval and aerial military presence in the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, Iran has relied on reconnaissance drones to monitor the movement of U.S. assets—either by observing maritime traffic lanes in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea or through aerial patrols along its regional borders. This comes amid rising tensions between the two sides, following the U.S. military’s announcement that it shot down an Iranian drone as it approached the U.S. aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln.

According to analytical reports, Tehran’s surveillance drone arsenal includes long-range models such as the Shahed-129, capable of remaining airborne for extended periods, as well as maritime surveillance drones like the Fotros, whose flight endurance is estimated at more than 20 hours and which are used to monitor wide maritime areas and border regions.

The U.S. military said Tuesday evening that it shot down an Iranian Shahed-139 drone, which it said was approaching the U.S. carrier, using an F-35 fighter jet—an incident that underscores the sensitivity of reciprocal aerial surveillance in the region.

Misbar tracks Iranian drone activity in the region using open-source tracking tools to better understand how Tehran monitors the U.S. naval deployment amid mutual threats of escalation.

Iranian Drone Activity Over the Arabian Sea

On Feb. 3, at 11:21 a.m. GMT, Misbar’s team detected an Iranian drone at coordinates close to the area where the U.S. aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln is believed to be operating in the Arabian Sea.

According to air navigation data, the drone’s signal appeared for only a few seconds before disappearing—a pattern typically observed during short-range reconnaissance missions—making it likely that this drone was the same one the U.S. military later announced it had shot down near the Abraham Lincoln.

Tracking data showed the drone was flying at a speed of approximately 148 kilometers per hour and at an altitude of 8,875 feet, a medium altitude consistent with a surveillance mission rather than a direct attack.

At 3:44 p.m. GMT, another drone carrying the callsign SEP2501 was detected, this time in an area close to the Iranian coastline.

The drone returned to Iranian airspace at 7:29 p.m. GMT after flying over the Gulf of Oman, a trajectory suggesting the completion of a reconnaissance mission in the area where the Abraham Lincoln is believed to be operating.

In parallel monitoring the same day, at 5:46 p.m. GMT, Misbar detected—via the aircraft-tracking website ADSBexchange—an Iranian drone with the callsign SEP2576 flying over the Arabian Sea opposite Iran’s Chabahar port, at a relatively low altitude estimated at about 7,375 feet.

The same drone had previously been detected by Misbar’s team on Feb. 2, 2026, flying over the city of Chabahar on a reconnaissance mission after operating over Iranian territorial waters off the city.

Monitoring the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz

On Feb. 1, 2026, an Iranian drone with the callsign SEP2502 was detected flying over the Gulf of Oman on a mission that lasted several hours before its signal disappeared near the Omani coast.

Misbar also detected, on Feb. 2, a similar drone carrying the callsign SEP2501 flying over large areas of the Gulf of Oman after departing from the Strait of Hormuz. The flight continued until 9:20 a.m. GMT, before the signal disappeared near the western coast of Oman.

Another Iranian drone, bearing the callsign KOME2703, was detected by Misbar through navigation-tracking programs on Feb. 1, 2026, at 11:44 a.m. GMT. Its flight path shows it conducted a reconnaissance loop starting from the Strait of Hormuz toward the Gulf of Oman, a mission lasting about one hour and 40 minutes, before continuing toward the Arabian Sea, where it appeared near coordinates believed to fall within the operating range of the U.S. aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln.

Reconnaissance Along Iran’s Western Borders

Misbar’s team also detected the same drone at 4:00 p.m., after it departed from Ardabil in northwestern Iran and carried out a surveillance and reconnaissance mission along Iran’s borders with Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Iraq, continuing toward the Arabian Gulf. The mission lasted about two hours, indicating that monitoring efforts are not limited to the maritime front but extend to broad, multi-directional regional surveillance.

Air navigation data showed the drone was flying at an altitude of around 33,000 feet and at a speed exceeding 880 kilometers per hour, indicating the use of a long-range drone designed for wide-area regional monitoring.

The flight patterns of Iranian drones—from the Arabian Sea to the Strait of Hormuz and along Iran’s western borders—suggest that Tehran is relying on aerial surveillance as a primary tool to track the U.S. military deployment, while avoiding direct confrontation during a period marked by heightened sensitivity in regional power balances.

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