The calm of the Arabian Sea shattered when three Iranian submarines lurched into attack formation and fired a spread of heavyweight torpedoes at a US destroyer escorting a carrier strike group, defence sources say. At 04:19 a.m., sonar operators aboard the Arleigh Burke–class warship watched their screens explode with incoming tracks — six “fish” in the water, closing fast.

Within seconds the ship went to full battle stations. The destroyer heeled hard over, deploying acoustic decoys and anti‑torpedo countermeasures as helicopters and a P‑8 Poseidon patrol aircraft were scrambled from the nearby carrier. One torpedo detonated prematurely in the ship’s wake, sending a towering column of water skyward and knocking sailors off their feet, but failing to breach the hull.

What happened next flipped the battle. Using triangulated sonar data from the destroyer, the carrier’s escorts and the P‑8’s dipping sonars, US forces rapidly boxed in all three Iranian subs. ASROC‑launched torpedoes and helicopter‑dropped weapons slammed into the contact points in rapid succession; moments later, sonar picked up the unmistakable sounds of collapsing hulls and breaking metal.

Iranian channels rushed to claim a “successful ambush,” but produced no proof of damage to the US ship. The Pentagon, by contrast, released grainy infrared footage of burning oil slicks and floating debris, calling the action “a textbook demonstration that any submarine firing on US vessels signs its own death warrant.”

For navies watching from afar, the message is chillingly simple: in the confined, sensor‑saturated waters of the Gulf, a torpedo launch may no longer be the start of a battle — it may be the last decision a submarine crew ever makes.