Attack submarine named USS Charlotte involved in the Iran war. How it got its name
A 20-second, black and white video posted on social media Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Defense showed an Iranian warship exploding and sinking.
The vessel firing the two torpedoes that sank that ship, the IRIS Dena, was a U.S. nuclear attack submarine that has a familiar name: the USS Charlotte.
The strike was confirmed by U.S. officials, according to CBS News.
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a news conference Wednesday the Iranian warship was sunk in the Indian Ocean.
The ship “thought it was safe in international waters,” Hegseth said. “Instead it was sunk by a torpedo — Quiet Death.”
Origin of the USS Charlotte
Prior to its attack on Iranian warships, the USS Charlotte was docked in Los Angeles, CBS News reported.
The USS Charlotte is the fourth vessel to be named after the Queen City. The ship, which gets its name from a Confederate schooner captured by Union forces in 1862, is now docked at Pearl Harbor, according to the Commander Submarine Force U.S. Pacific Fleet website.
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“The first Charlotte was a 70-ton schooner used by Confederate forces in the Civil War,” the website said. “The ship was captured by Union forces off Mobile, Alabama, in April 1862 and joined the Union Navy in November of the same year.”
The other Charlottes
After the schooner was sold in Pensacola five years later, the next ship — named the North Carolina — was commissioned in 1908, according to the Commander Submarine Force website. It was renamed the Charlotte in 1920, but was decommissioned the next year after a “short and relatively peaceful career,” the website stated.
“While serving as a station ship in Pensacola, the cruiser became the first ship in history to launch an aircraft by catapult while underway,” the website said.
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The third Charlotte ship, a patrol frigate, was manned by the Coast Guard during World War II. It was used as a weather observation station and helped rescue downed pilots until it was decommissioned in 1946.
The current USS Charlotte was christened in 1992 in Newport News, Virginia, commissioned in 1994 and then arrived in Pearl Harbor in 1995.
The U.S. Navy’s website said attack submarines, like the USS Charlotte are used to find and destroy enemy submarines and surface ships, intelligence and reconnaissance missions, and engage in mini warfare. The subs can fire Tomahawk cruise missiles, the website said.
The USS Charlotte is part of the Navy’s Los Angeles-class submarines.
These subs “have been the backbone of the submarine force for the last 40 years, with approximately 24 now in commission,” the website said.
