Death post-Dawat: Sinking of an Iranian warship by the US

Jaideep Saikia

I am a student of India’s National Security. My brief, if any, especially as I have not been asked  by anyone in my one-time employer, the Government of India, is simply to take stock of, analyse and prognosticate on the nation’s security. 

I concentrate primarily on a strategic arc that encompasses the entire Northeast of India and the abutting Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. I, of course, bring my lifeless analysis to bear on Pakistan whenever the failed state has a bearing on India, for instance, during Op Sindoor, or what has been happening in its aftermath. I also critically examine India’s intelligence, its military, its doctrinaire and its counter-terrorism moves.

However, I do occasionally digress to analyse the “Beyond-the-Horizon” aspects of international terrorism and conflict. To that end, I have written (or given thought to writing!) about the United Nations Security Council’s briefing on the Secretary General’s 22nd biannual strategic-level report on the threat posed by the Islamic State to international security, as also the manner in which al-Qaeda is consolidating its position by way of accessing high-end technology and regrouping itself.

But today, I wish to write about the sad sinking of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ship (IRIS) Dena, the Iranian Moudge-class frigate, by a United States (US) submarine, USS Charlotte (SSN-766), off the coast of Galle in Sri Lanka. To be sure, IRIS Dena was in international waters when two Mark 48 torpedoes were launched from USS Charlotte, one of which decisively sank it.

The US is at war with Iran in what it terms “Op Epic Fury”. In the universe of discourse that defines operational engagement, both the IRIS Dena and the USS Charlotte are “boats of war” in a larger chessboard of the US-Iran war. The only difference was that IRIS Dena was returning home from an invitation that it had received from the Indian Navy to witness, participate in and celebrate both the Indian Fleet Review 2026 and the multilateral “Milan 2026”, in which India’s Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces participated and took the salute. 

I have many friends from the Indian armed forces by dint of having been a cadet in the Royal Indian Military College, Dehradun. While I got weeded out rather early in the day because of medical reasons, many of my fellow Rimcollians are serving naval officers, with at least one of them in a very senior three-star rank. 

The sinking of the IRIS Dena and the death of over 80 Iranian sailors who were aboard the frigate has cast a spell of gloom over Vishakhapatnam. It was reported that the Iranian naval contingent had won the hearts of the denizens of the coastal city. Vishakhapatnam is also the HQs of the Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet. 

The question which is being asked by most right-thinking people around the world at this time is whether the US had performed an unethical act by deliberately targeting a vessel, an Iranian, which was not in combat mode.

It would interest the readers to learn that even a US Navy maritime patrol aircraft, the P-8A Poseidon, had participated in the Indian Fleet Review 2026 and the exercise named “Milan 2026”. It is possible that crews of both the US and Iran met and mingled during the “Harbour Phase” activities in the “Milan Village”, where India had hoisted the banner of “Camaraderie, Cooperation and Collaboration”. 

Retired naval officer friends of mine (certainly not the ones still serving; they would never comment on such sensitive matters!) have informed me that (a) the US submarine knew about the last port of call of the IRIS Dena, which was Vishakhapatnam, where the celebrations were held. (b) It was lying in wait to surprise it, with some observers hazarding that the P-8A Poseidon itself had provided the Iranian frigate’s passage plan to the US Naval command! And (c) even if they wanted to intercept and disable IRIS Dena, the USS Charlotte could have resorted to a “bow shot,” which would have incapacitated Dena and not resulted in loss of life. I am no mariner, but what little I have learnt from naval friends and popular literature on the internet is that if a torpedo hits a target’s bow, the blow can cause a great amount of flooding that would pull the target (in this case the Iranian frigate) down by the head. However, most warships have “reinforced bows to withstand sea pressure, which can, at times, provide a little more resilience than a complicated machinery-laden stern.”

Instead, the US submarine let off “stern shots” with the intention of sinking the Iranian frigate. Stern hits are usually considered to be “kills” because even if the ship does not immediately sink, the hit to the stern would almost certainly destroy the propeller shafts and the rudders. Such a shot would invariably sink the target without any possibility of manoeuvre.

In any event, the episode showcased the ruthlessness of the US under Trump. The US Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, called it the “quiet death” of an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. It was both American sarcasm and arrogance at its best—about the killing of an “unarmed-unloaded” Iranian warship. Former Indian Navy Chief Admiral Arun Prakash described the event as “senseless, inflammatory and condemnable.” Strategic thinker Brahma Chellaney said that the “strike looks like a premeditated execution rather than combat.” Wes Bryant, a former US Air Force Special Operations targeting expert, called the submarine strike “illegal” and said that it was “an incredibly dangerous example of military overreach.”

As a cadet in the RIMC, Dehradun, I, along with my other comrades, had learnt about not only weighty aspects such as the Geneva Convention but also ethics to be followed during conflict, whatever form or hue it might take. I was a boxer, and one had learnt that there is nothing called “punishment” in the ring, especially if a sure-shot winner knows that the opponent is reeling from the battery he had received in the first two rounds. In fact, a magnanimous winner would always calmly escort the loser to his corner once the bout is over. Hegseth, in a statement at the Pentagon on 4 February 2026, said this “wasn’t meant to be a fair fight” and that the US is “punching” Iran while they’re down.

I was not expecting the USS Charlotte to safely escort the IRIS Dena to its docking facility in Bandar Abbas Naval Base in Iran. But it could have certainly abstained from mortally engaging a boat that had no combat objective, especially as it was known to be unarmed and defenceless, even to the US intelligence. 

Legal eagles will continue to debate about the sinking of IRIS Dena for a long time. Certain experts will also invoke Article 18 of the Second Geneva Convention, which requires parties to a conflict to take “all possible measures to search for and collect the shipwrecked, wounded or the sick after an engagement, provided military circumstances permit it.” The USS Charlotte simply “fled the scene” and sailed away from the waters, leaving, reportedly, the Sri Lankan Navy to rescue the unfortunate victims. So much for Trump and the invading flotilla that he is so clinically siring and launching onto a “Brave New World”.

(Jaideep Saikia is a universally acclaimed conflict theorist and bestselling author. He can be reached at jdpsaikia@gmail.com.)