Hegseth wrong to say 'first torpedo sinking since WW2'

[Celerity]

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c62gg44d53xt?post=asset%3Aba4c3a07-1ea5-4844-a1ca-4f0dde57543f#post

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that a US submarine sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean with a torpedo. He claimed it represented “the first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War Two”.

This is not correct. During the Falklands War in 1982, Argentina's only cruiser - the General Belgrano - sank in the South Atlantic after being struck by two Tigerfish torpedoes fired by a British nuclear-powered submarine.



Another sinking occurred in 1971, after Indian frigate INS Khukri was torpedoed by a Pakistan submarine, external.

However, if confirmed, the sinking of the Iranian warship would be the first time since 1945 that an American submarine has sunk an enemy ship this way.