In the early hours of March 4, 2026, in international waters off the coast of Galle, Sri Lanka, the USS Charlotte, a Los Angeles–class nuclear-powered attack submarine, closed in on the IRIS Dena, a new Iranian Moudge-class frigate.
Submerged, the Charlotte fired a heavyweight, acoustic-homing torpedo at the hull of the Dena. It missed. It fired another. It connected. The periscope footage of the attack was released by the United States Department of War. It shows the shockwave of the torpedo fracturing the Dena’s hull and sending its helicopter flight deck metres into the air.
Within seconds, what was left of the Dena was plummeting to the depths of the Indian Ocean, carrying at least sixty of its crew of 180 to their deaths.
Some moments later, an email was sent from US Indo-Pacific Command to Sri Lanka’s maritime rescue agency. Twenty miles from Galle’s coast, a ship is in distress. Sri Lanka immediately engaged a search and rescue effort that included its air force and navy. The surface of the sea contained clues that a vessel had been attacked and had likely been sunk. But it was not clear whether the attack had come from above or below. They were able to rescue thirty-two sailors, and recover the bodies of eighty-seven others, many of whom had mysteriously broken legs.
The Charlotte had long vanished like an apparition beneath the waves.
This was on the fifth day of the US–Israeli war on Iran, 2,000 nautical miles from the immediate conflict zone.
It was on a training mission and was heading home. With no weapons on board. We are cowards.
This entire war is illegal, but articles like this just grind my gears.
Attacking a war ship on a training run is like destroying airplanes on the ground, or bombing infantry barracks where soldiers are sleeping. It isn’t a war crime, or even out of the ordinary in a war.
And calling the sub crew cowards doesn’t even make sense.
The frigate would have been just as helpless against the sub if it had been carrying its usual armament.
I guess I’m just allergic to dishonest propaganda, no matter from which side.
Also, fuck Trump, his administration, and every single US service member going along with this. I hope they get humiliated and are forced to pull out with their tails between their legs before they “accidentally” kill more school children, or deliberately destroy Iran’s civilian infrastructure (an actual war crime).
You are in serious need of education. This was an international naval exercise, where participants show up unarmed to not endanger any other participants and as a show of good will. This is basically a diplomatic gesture. Attacking such a ship is among the most cowardly things any military can do. So exactly what you would expect from the cowards of Magastan.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine started as a military exercise. Just because a military unit is on an “exercise”, it does not mean it is not combat capable, or a valid military target.
Try a mirror.
an attack on an unarmed vessel during a ceremonial voyage 2000 miles from the illegal war… yeah no. Just another war crime to add to the pile.
There’s plenty of that to be found on Lemmy tho
Yes, and the reactions to this post make me seriously consider leaving this place.
For me it’s the exact opposite. I wouldn’t know where else to observe these people, if not here?
And if it gets too frustrating I just close the app
Yeah, lemmy is a bit of a cespool.
Wow you’re soft.
So it has no weapons on board, it was just on a training mission. Cool.
But it’s still a warship and two countries are at war. I guess you’re saying the us should wait for it to make its way to port, fill up on ammo, take on its full crew compliment and then sink it as it leaves port?
Is that better?
Let’s put aside the stupidity of the idea that they should have allowed it to re-arm first and risk US lives for no reason.
The training mission had a live fire component, so the ship was definitely armed during a portion of the excersise. Unless they ran out of ammo or something weird happened, it was armed.
From the actual article. Which you could have read. It’s not even paywalled, you just didn’t want to take the time.
And yet the article cites no source for this and as far as I can tell, there is no official source excluding Iran. Only the same BS that ammo is usually not carried during excersises which obviously does not apply to live-fire excersises, which Milan 2026 was.
So unless you are suggesting we should be trusting what Iran says, I revert back to there is a good chance it had some ammo.
More importantly, what does it matter? The US military wouldn’t have known for sure whether the ship had ammo or not and no reason to check. Even if it did not have ammo at the time, it would just re-arm in Iran. It was a legitimate target regardless, just like a bomber returning home after dropping bombs is a legitimate target, even if it does not carry bombs at that time. If you let it go, it will pick up more bombs and bomb you again.
PS: No idea why people feel the need to make shit up to paint the US in a bad picture. You want evidence of a US warcrime?
There it is. Just making that statement is a violation of the Geneva conventions. This is because it discourages surrendering, by suggesting surrenders will not be accepted/treated well, which in turn results in more deaths than necessary.
Oh of course, the manly thing to do would be to wait for it get back to port get munitions and then shoot it