What we know about US sea drone used in helicopter crew rescue mission

"The Corsair is about the size of a fishing boat with a flat deck, so it's designed to be loaded and it's probably able to hold three to four people," says Bryan Clark, a naval drone expert at the Hudson Institute policy think-tank.Clark adds it has a 360-degree camera, a radar system for long range navigation, and an electronic radio sensor to pick up communications for intelligence gathering."This Corsair vessel has been around for a few years now - the US Navy has about 50 of them," according to Dr Stacie Pettyjohn, a US military expert at the Center for a New American Security think-tank."They're typically used for detecting mines or surveillance, but the Navy is still experimenting with the fleet in the strait to see what it can do."The sea drone is operated by Task Force 59, the US Navy's first unit dedicated to unmanned systems which was created in 2021, and the US began deploying it in the Middle East in March.It's part of the Pentagon's plan to expand its use of drones. The Navy awarded the Corsair's manufacturer a $392 million (£293m) production contract for its autonomous vessels last year.How did the rescue mission play out?Although the sea drone can be operated autonomously, both experts BBC Verify spoke to said it was probably manually operated for the rescue.