The most advanced US aircraft carrier afloat, USS Gerald R. Ford, has survived a ᴅᴇᴀᴅly underwater ambush after an Iranian Kilo‑class submarine fired two heavyweight torpedoes at the supercarrier in the north Arabian Sea, defence sources say.

At 4:11 a.m. local time, sonar operators aboard a US escort destroyer picked up the unmistakable “whoosh” of twin torpedo launches from deep water off the carrier’s starboard quarter. Within seconds, alarms screamed across the Ford’s vast decks as the 100,000‑ton warship began an emergency turn, churning a foaming wake while escorts deployed acoustic decoys and anti‑torpedo countermeasures.

One torpedo detonated prematurely in the carrier’s turbulent track, throwing up a towering column of water that rattled bulkheads and knocked sailors off their feet but left the hull intact. The second was lured away by decoys and neutralised by a close‑in defensive weapon, disappearing in a distant, dull thud on sonar.

What happened next was brutal. Using the torpedo bearings, a US attack submarine already shadowing the area closed in on the Kilo, while a P‑8 Poseidon dropped sonar buoys to box it in. Minutes later, a US torpedo locked onto the fleeing contact. A muffled underwater blast and rising oil slick marked the end of Iran’s “silent hunter” — no survivors reported.

Tehran’s media is hailing a “successful operation against an American floating airbase,” while Washington insists the Ford remains “fully mission‑capable” and warns that any submarine that fires on a US carrier “will not live to try twice.”