Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced this morning that a U.S. Navy submarine killed an Iranian Moudge-class frigate, the IRIS Dena, in the Indian Ocean.

https://t.co/PiqQpVIrMu pic.twitter.com/Wc1e0B0um7 — Department of War 🇺🇸 (@DeptofWar) March 4, 2026

https://t.co/PiqQpVIrMu pic.twitter.com/Wc1e0B0um7

— Department of War 🇺🇸 (@DeptofWar) March 4, 2026

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This is reportedly the first such kill by a U.S. sub since the final days of World War II, though ask submariners who’ve served since that time, and while they’ll tell you nothing, their facial contortions suggest our underwater boats got into a good deal of secret squirrel hijinks in the interim.

Whatever the case, watching the Dena lift out of the water — as the torpedo creates a cavity under the ship — and then have its back broken by gravity’s reassertion the next second, was equal parts nauseating and monochromatically brilliant. Our submariners, known as the Silent Service, did the job we ask of our fast-attack boats, and did it textbook. No enemy vessel should think itself safe so long as those lone wolves patrol the world’s waters. And consider that, since World War II, we’ve added missiles to the fast attacks and boomers, meaning even a ship in the ease of a dry dock’s hammocks should look at the unbroken surface of the nearest waters with dread.

All the same, the surface-fleet sailor in me watched in horror as a frigate — not so unlike my first ship, the USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG-60) — was underway one moment and a quickly sinking hulk the next. The implosion occurred directly under the Dena‘s stern, the location of the Davis’s A-Gang shop, power steering, propellers, and the towed-sonar-array locker. The Dena hadn’t the time for death throes, so great were its wounds, with its bow, pointed toward the heavens, being the last to surrender to the sea.

If the Dena had a towed array and had it active, it was still no match for the U.S. submarine fleet. The kill is a credit to our sailors and officers, our designers and engineers, and all the material science that made this possible. The Dena is destroyed, and its weapons systems are no longer a threat to our fleets. So while my innards are contorted, there can be no doubt that “the cruel sea” should be precisely that for those who seek to do us and our allies harm.

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