The United States Navy employed a method not seen since World War II to sink an Iranian warship, using a torpedo to take out the regime vessel that mistakenly “thought it was safe in international waters.”
War Secretary Pete Hegseth described the scene during a Wednesday morning press briefing, sharing video of the strike and drawing another comparison to the Second World War as he said that America’s military was unequivocally “fighting to win.”
WATCH:
https://t.co/PiqQpVIrMu pic.twitter.com/Wc1e0B0um7
— Department of War 🇺🇸 (@DeptofWar) March 4, 2026
“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. Like in that war — back when we were still the War Department — we are fighting to win.”
The White House showed video of the strike, and the War Department followed with two still photos of the Iranian warship, one immediately after the torpedo strike and the other shortly afterward as it fully capsized.
https://t.co/J4grAgoqxc pic.twitter.com/szOofLkh9W
— Department of War 🇺🇸 (@DeptofWar) March 4, 2026
Torpedoes were used to significant effect during World War II despite a number of early issues, including some that failed to detonate and others that ran too deep — sometimes 10-15 feet below their intended targets. All told, American submarines sank more than 1,100 shipping vessels and 214 warships using the Mark-14 torpedo in the Pacific theater, all contributing to a successful blockade of the Empire of Japan.
Both President Donald Trump and Hegseth have been clear about the goals of Operation Epic Fury, the military campaign undertaken alongside Israel against the Iranian regime, and have said that hobbling the regime’s navy was one key objective.
As the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) posted days earlier, American military assets have already made great strides toward that objective, sinking several Iranian vessels in the Gulf of Oman. The Iranian regime typically used those vessels to harass international shipping lanes in the area, and CENTCOM effectively declared on Monday that such actions would no longer be tolerated.
“Two days ago, the Iranian regime had 11 ships in the Gulf of Oman, today they have ZERO. The Iranian regime has harassed and attacked international shipping in the Gulf of Oman for decades,” CENTCOM captioned a video of another American strike taking out an Iranian vessel. “Those days are over.”
.png)
.png)
