U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth falsely claimed a recent torpedo strike on an Iranian ship was the first since WWII, though three such sinkings occurred after 1945.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed the sinking of an Iranian ship in the Indian Ocean was the first time since World War II that an enemy vessel had been sunk by a torpedo, but historical records confirm at least three such incidents since 1945: the 1982 sinking of the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano by a British submarine, the 1971 sinking of India’s INS Khukri by a Pakistani submarine, and the 2010 sinking of South Korea’s ROKS Cheonan, which a joint investigation attributed to a North Korean torpedo, though North Korea denies involvement.