The downing of an Iranian warship on Tuesday within the Indian Ocean by U.S. Navy forces marks the primary time an American submarine has destroyed an enemy vessel in fight for the reason that last days of World Battle II.
The goal of the US’ fast-attack submarine torpedo was the IRIS Dena, a Moudge-class frigate carrying roughly 180 crew members, in keeping with affirmation by the Pentagon. The vessel sank about 20 nautical miles south of Galle in Sri Lanka, the place authorities recovered a number of our bodies and rescued 32 wounded sailors whereas roughly 100 others remained lacking. Sri Lanka’s deputy international minister informed native tv that not less than 80 folks have been killed within the strike.
The Iranian frigate was getting back from the 2026 Worldwide Fleet Overview, which it had attended in Visakhapatnam, India. It was transiting worldwide waters when it was hit.
‘Quiet Demise’
Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the strike Wednesday throughout a Pentagon press briefing alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers Gen. Dan Caine.
Yesterday, within the Indian Ocean… an American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was protected in worldwide waters. As an alternative, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet dying. The primary sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World Battle II. – Hegseth on the Pentagon
Caine confirmed the ship was destroyed by a single Mark 48 torpedo fired from a U.S. Navy fast-attack submarine, with video footage taken from the submarine exhibiting the frigate’s hull destroyed within the blast.
The Pentagon launched that footage publicly, exhibiting an infrared picture of an enormous detonation on the stern of the IRIS Dena earlier than the vessel slipped beneath the floor.
Caine informed reporters that U.S. forces had destroyed greater than 20 Iranian naval vessels as a part of Operation Epic Fury, including that American forces had “successfully neutralized, at this time limit, Iran’s main naval presence in theater.”
Hegseth declared the Iranian Navy “fight ineffective, decimated, destroyed, defeated.”
The identification of the submarine was not revealed, as is normal observe for operational safety round submarine operations.
Echoes of WWII
The final time a U.S. submarine sank an enemy warship with a torpedo was throughout World Battle II. The goal was a Japanese coastal protection frigate within the Sea of Japan because the struggle was hours from ending.
That distinction belonged to the USS Torsk (SS-423), a Tench-class boat that fired the Navy’s last torpedoes of the struggle on Aug. 14, 1945, sinking the Japanese Kaibōkan escort vessel utilizing a Mark 28 acoustic-homing torpedo and a Mark 27 “Cutie” torpedo.
Japan introduced its give up the next day, making Torsk’s kill the final enemy warship sunk in the complete battle.
The sinking of the IRIS Dena additionally marks the primary time in practically 44 years that any nation’s submarine scored a kill. The final time any submarine had sunk an enemy warship in fight was throughout the Falklands Battle, when the Royal Navy’s HMS Conqueror, a Churchill-class nuclear-powered assault submarine, despatched the Argentine cruiser ARA Normal Belgrano to the underside utilizing a salvo of Mark VIII straight-running torpedoes in 1982.
The strike on the IRIS Dena can be solely the second time in historical past {that a} nuclear-powered assault submarine has destroyed an enemy vessel in fight, and the primary ever SSN kill achieved with a guided torpedo. The U.S. Navy has operated an completely nuclear-powered submarine fleet since 1990, when USS Blueback, the final diesel-electric assault boat, was decommissioned.
The Mk 48 is a heavyweight wire-guided weapon designed to detonate beneath a ship’s keel, inflicting catastrophic structural injury somewhat than a easy hull penetration.
American Submarines and the Indo-Pacific
The placement of Tuesday’s strike carries significance past the kill itself. Operation Epic Fury is a CENTCOM operation, with its naval forces working below fifth Fleet, headquartered in Bahrain and masking the Arabian Sea and surrounding waterways.
However the IRIS Dena was not sunk in that battlespace. It went down tons of of miles to the east, in waters nicely inside seventh Fleet’s Indo-Pacific AO, suggesting the U.S. submarine might have tracked the frigate nicely exterior the theater of battle.
Whether or not the boat that fired the torpedo belonged to fifth Fleet or seventh Fleet, the Pentagon has not mentioned—and it’s unlikely to. The identification and project of U.S. submarines on energetic operations are among the many most tightly held items of knowledge within the American army.
What the strike does show is the extraordinary vary at which American submarine forces can function. The IRIS Dena had simply accomplished multinational naval workouts with regional navies off the Indian coast, was transiting worldwide waters removed from the Persian Gulf and nonetheless discovered itself inside vary of a torpedo it by no means noticed coming.
Hegseth closed his remarks with a direct invocation of the Navy’s wartime historical past.
“Like in that struggle, again once we have been nonetheless the Battle Division, we’re combating to win,” he mentioned.
