USN sub sinks Iranian warship
IRIS Dena during better days. It has reportedly lost the ability to displace water.
The Department of Defense/War has confirmed that a US Navy fast attack submarine has torpedoed an Iranian frigate. There’s even video released already of the ship heaving out of the water from the blast. Jeff LPH sends in this breaking news. This is the first American torpedoing since WWII, and only the second kill by a nuclear powered sub. The only preceding nuclear sub to torpedo an enemy vessel was HMS Conqueror’s sinking of ARA General Belgrano during the Falklands War. I talked about that incident a few months back on a Valor Friday.
From Military Times;
A United States Navy submarine sunk an Iranian ship with a single torpedo as the frigate was transiting the Indian Ocean, marking the first such kill by a U.S. submarine since World War II, the Pentagon confirmed on Wednesday.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the strike during a Pentagon press briefing on Operation Epic Fury alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.
“Yesterday, in the Indian Ocean … an American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters,” Hegseth said. “Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II.”
The identity of the fast-attack boat was not revealed, as is custom for operational security surrounding submarine operations.
The strike occurred off the southern coast of Sri Lanka, according to Reuters, which would indicate the action occurred in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility.
The IRIS Dena, a Moudge-class frigate assigned to the Southern Fleet of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy, was in the region after reportedly taking part in a naval drill in the Bay of Bengal.
Sri Lankan Foreign minister Vijitha Herath said 180 people were on board the IRIS Dena. Thirty-two people were subsequently rescued by Sri Lankan naval personnel.
Commander Buddhika Sampath, a Sri Lankan navy spokesman, said the rescue effort was also recovering bodies from the scene.
“For the first time since 1945, a United States Navy fast attack submarine has sunk an enemy combatant ship using a single Mk-48 torpedo to achieve immediate effect, sending the warship to the bottom of the sea,” Caine said during the press briefing Wednesday.
“This is an incredible demonstration of America’s global reach. To hunt, find and kill an out-of-area deployer is something that only the United States can do at this type of scale.”
Caine added that, to date, the U.S. has hit over 2,000 total targets across Iran and destroyed more than 20 of the Islamic Republic’s naval vessels.
The campaign has “effectively neutralized, at this point in time, Iran’s major naval presence in theater,” he said.
Strikes on infrastructure and naval capability by the vast assembly of U.S. forces in the region are expected to continue over the next 24 to 48 hours, Caine noted.
“We’ll continue to assess our progress against the military objectives,” he said.
Category: Breaking News, Iran, Navy
Right in the engine room. No way to recover from that. I guess the Straights of Hormuz are now safe from sea based threats with most of the Naval Tonnage at the bottom.
Now to shut down remaining land and air based threats.
Negative. US flag ships (three total) are stranded inside the Gulf and report their owners are not giving them updates and that the Navy is almost refusing to provide escort for them. I know it has been an issue with several American maritime labor unions these past few days.
Escorts aren’t the priority at the moment. The Navy is focused on supporting combat operations in and near Iran.
A bubblehead can correct me, but I imagine some facsimile of this going down. I know certain people will complain about international water, but the IRG supposedly close the Straights of Hormuz. Anybody think that ship was coming back NOT to enforce those orders? I wonder if the boat will comeback with a broom lashed to the periscope denting a “Clean Sweep” of enemy vessels.
I think those bubbleheads will not have to buy a beer for a long time.
Sounds like a War Patrol Pin is in order.
Due to security concerns, frankly I would not be surprised if the DOW will not publicize the name of the boat that got the kill. If memory serves correctly, the Iranian operatives tried to assassinate the captain of the USS Vincennes after the accidental shoot down of an Iran Air passenger plane during the Iran/Iraq war in the 80’s.
Yes someone did try to kill him but it was his wife’s van that blew up and I think she survived – crazy times back then.
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…I wonder if the boat will come back with a broom lashed to the periscope denoting a “Clean Sweep” of enemy vessels.
Damn, my spelling sucks sometimes…
Its ok HT3, you’re a Squid, right? Everyone knows Squids can’t spell. You guys need Marines to proof-read your papers.
Something tells me I’m gunna pay dearly for that comment. LOL
yea something about crayons could be said (.-.)
Good one jem. I never ate crayons, but I did eat the paste in first and second grade!
We all know paste is a gateway food to crayons and other hard stuff.
Maybe true, but you guys keep eating the writing utensils.
I was always told that since I was attached to a surface ship, I couldn’t call a sub a boat unless I was on one.. I had to call it a ship. this was when I was aboard the LPH-3 1963-1966 and did the kitty cruise hitch…I don’t know if those too words are still used in todays Navy…
So the SoH are 24 miles across. This is important because UNCLOS rules put territorial limit at 12 miles off shore for most purposes. Half of the SoH waters belong to Oman and half belong to Iran. With a tight body of water like that nations are supposed to allow “innocent passage” which means no spying, fighting or war training while in that area. Just cruise across it.
Iran doesn’t legally control the entire SoH but could, especially due to the war, close their side of it. However; they tried claim the entire thing was closed and they would shoot anything transiting the area. They then attacked their own oil tanker transiting the area, possibly by mistake.
The RNO, which consists of a handful of corvettes and few patrol craft was, until last Friday, dwarfed by the size of the Iranian Navy. So they would have been unable to reopen the SoH by themselves.
The USN escorting tankers through the straights in nothing new. We did that with Operation Earnest Will. Right now, IRG doesn’t have the navy or air force to block it effectively. They’re only hope is drones or possibly naval mines. Drones are good against unguarded targets, but they’re too slow to evade anything like a CIWS. The Ukes shoot down Russian drones from helos door gunners.
From Warship to artificial reef in how many minutes?
It’s 2026 — it identifies as a submarine.
Has it had the “operation” to fix it’s ballcock valve?
I’ve been on numerous exercise and test events involving the MK-48 heavyweight torpedo. There is no mistaking the sound of it lighting off. I was glad I was in an airplane.
FWIW, my wife’s granddad was part of the engineering team that developed the MK48. I wish he could have seen this.
Wait. The Mk48 is an old torpedo?
I thought we had advanced torpedoes, like AI-controlled or something.
Oh man what a hit.
Another artificial reef!
Hi Skimmer, Bye Skimmer.
Submarines once, submarines twice
😁
Holy jumping Jesus Christ…
We go up and we go down
Here is a legit map of the high risk areas in the Gulf, ; lol
Nice work, Popeye.
To be clear, I consider the deaths of enemy service members in LOD to be less tragic than that of terrified civilian refugees, of whatever affiliation, who are attempting to flee the FEBA.
Go you. Thanks for letting us all know.
That was in case anyone mistook my sympathy day before yesterday for the multiple thousands of souls who were killed in the sinking of the MV Wilhelm Gustloff as being universal for all sinkings.
I get you. I don’t rank order human life unless I’m related to them or serving with them.
Dear RG Navy:
Yes, we still have submarines and torpedoes.
Enjoy your new mooring on the seabed.
Signed, US Navy
OK Navy. Stand by to repel posers. It won’t belong till the “I was on that boat” claims start.
So, will the boat stamp this on their hull?:
And here we find a definition of FO.
My recruiter was STS2 Toogood, and he told me there were 2 types of ships: submarines and targets.
Your recruiter sounds like an enlightened individual!
I had my son tell me that same thing one time. He is a retired CSCS/SS.
The one that I heard was “ANY boat can go underwater, but only a few can come back up on their own!”.
Last picture but a go-to favorite of mine.
More love for our blackshoe brethern, nice.
It definitely broke the back of the target ship. That much is pretty clear in the video. I’m wondering if they used a tracking (wake following) torpedo since it hit right at the aft end of the ship. Either way, the Mk 48 seems to be rather capable.
Definitely better than the ones their brethren had at the beginning of WWII..
Yes, just read “The Bravest Man” by William Tuohy, it chronicles the missions of William O’Kane, the highest-scoring Sub Skipper of WWII whose Sub was sank by an electric torpedo it launched, that book gives an insight to the torpedo scandals of WWII.
Yeah, the navy really struggled to get a viable torpedo.. crazy to think about, considering how successful the japs were with their long lance one..
That and the detonators malfunctioned far more often than many think, a faulty design that saved Japanese ships!
Hah!
One single Mk48?
Great shooting!
That’s what I call a cost effective targetting of the enemy.
I would just say frig it and head out to Subway for lunch.
Iranian vessel surrenders to Sri Lanka:
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2026/03/05/iranian-warship-surrenders-to-sri-lankans-first-time-ship-interned-by-neutral-nation-since-second-world-war/
Like the line from the tug-of-war scene in the movie “Revenge of the Nerds”, that Skipper and his crew said, “It’s okay, we give up!”.