IRIS Dena - one of Iran’s newest warships - had been on a friendly visit to India before it was sunk by a US submarine
3-MIN READ3-MINBloombergPublished: 10:46am, 5 Mar 2026The Iranian warship IRIS Dena was in the Indian Ocean when a Los Angeles-class US attack submarine fired an MK-48 torpedo, setting off a massive explosion that lifted the ship’s stern out of the water before sinking the vessel.The US Defence Department highlighted the attack - releasing black-and-white video footage that showed the USS Charlotte’s strike - to draw attention to a key element of its campaign against Iran: eliminating the country’s navy to keep the country from impeding the flow of crude oil and natural gas in the region.
US officials said Wednesday the campaign has struck or sunk about 20 ships and hit naval facilities and characterised it as evidence of the US military’s reach and ability to decimate Iran’s ability to fight back four days since launching its campaign with Israel. The Dena was far from the conflict zone.
“The Iranian navy rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf,” Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a briefing on Wednesday morning. “It is no more.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was explicit when he said the US wanted to eliminate “the threat posed by their navy to global shipping”.
