A US Navy fast attack submarine sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, marking the first time that an American submarine has sunk an enemy combat vessel since World War II.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth made the announcement during a Pentagon press conference Wednesday morning.
“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. Like in that war, back when we were still the War Department, we are fighting to win.”
American submarines were devastatingly effective in World War II, sinking more than 1,300 Japanese ships, the largest of which was the supercarrier Shinano sunk by USS Archerfish in 1944. American submarines continued sinking Japanese vessels until the final months of the war.
The Iranian ship was struck by a single M48 heavyweight torpedo from a Navy fast attack submarine, said Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, during the press briefing, adding that other strikes targeting Iranian infrastructure and naval vessels are forthcoming. So far, over 20 naval vessels have been destroyed since the war began Saturday, along with 2,000 other targets.
The Pentagon released a video of the engagement following the briefing.
“The throttle is coming up,” Caine said, “as opposed to ramping down. This will allow us to maintain consistent pressure on the adversary over the coming days, disrupt their launch timelines and impose costs every day around the clock.”
“We are destroying the Iranian Navy, degrading its capacity, capability and ability to conduct operations,” the general added.
President Donald Trump has said a primary objective of the war is to “annihilate” the Iranian navy, along with destroying its missile capabilities, stopping it from developing a nuclear warhead, and ending its ability to pose a threat.
Recent satellite images showed the fiery destruction of Iran’s largest naval vessel, an oil tanker converted into a floating base, in an Iranian port near the Strait of Hormuz. Other vessels were captured sinking at another naval facility the day prior, when the military confirmed it had sunk an Iranian Jamaran-class corvette, a frigate, and other targets in the Gulf of Oman.
“The Iranian Navy rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf. Combat ineffective, decimated, destroyed, defeated. Pick your adjective,” Hegseth said Wednesday. “Their navy, not a factor. Pick your adjective. It is no more.”
