This WWII submarine was the last US boat to notch a torpedo kill — until this week

A United States Navy submarine sank an Iranian ship with a single torpedo this week 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.

Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth acknowledged the strike while discussing updates surrounding ongoing combat engagements in Iran, dubbed Operation Epic Fury.

“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.”

Caine also confirmed the action on Wednesday, noting a fast attack submarine off the southern coast of Sri Lanka “sunk an enemy combatant ship using a single Mk-48 torpedo to achieve immediate effect, sending the warship to the bottom of the sea.”

The last U.S. boat to notch a confirmed torpedo kill on an enemy vessel, meanwhile, was the Tench-class submarine USS Torsk, which sent two Japanese coastal defense frigates below the waves on Aug. 14, 1945, one day prior to the country’s surrender in the Pacific.

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Source: Military Times
Website: www.militarytimes.com