The Australian government has refused to disclose whether Australian sailors or officers were onboard the US attack submarine which torpedoed and sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, killing at least 87 people.
More than 50 Australian sailors and officers are serving across the US attack submarine fleet, a training regimen that is part of preparations for Australia to command its own nuclear-powered submarines under the Aukus deal.
According to the Royal Australian Navy, one in 10 crew members onboard US Navy attack submarines is Australian. Defence sources have told the Guardian they believe two Australians were on board the submarine.
If Australians were onboard the unnamed attack submarine, it would be the first direct involvement of Australian defence personnel in the current conflict.
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The foreign minister, Penny Wong, told the Senate that US submarine actions were a matter for the US Navy. “For operational and security reasons, we don’t disclose specific information regarding Australian personnel.”
The US submarine strike on the Islamic Republic of Iran Ship (Iris) Dena was the first time an enemy vessel has been sunk by an American torpedo since the second world war, the US secretary of war, Pete Hegseth, told a Pentagon briefing.
“An American submarine sank an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. It was sunk by a torpedo, a quiet death.”
Hegseth promised “sheer destruction” for an Iranian regime decapitated by the assassination of supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at the weekend.
“America is winning decisively, devastatingly and without mercy … they are toast and they know it.”
The Pentagon has not identified which submarine was involved in the attack on Wednesday, but defence trade press reported the submarine that launched the torpedo was the USS Minnesota, a Virginia class submarine that rotated through the HMAS Stirling base in Western Australia last year.
Up to 180 personnel were believed on board the Iranian frigate which was sailing in international waters as it returned from a naval exercise organised by India in the Bay of Bengal.
For months, Australians have been training and serving on US attack submarines, based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the likely port of origin for a submarine operating in the Indian Ocean. The Dena was sunk just off the southern Sri Lankan city of Galle, in the Indo-Pacific Command area of responsibility. The Indo-Pacific command is headquartered in Hawaii.
In October, the chief of the Royal Australian Navy, V-Adm Mark Hammond, told Senate estimates there were “more than 50 Australians serving on US fast-attack submarines based out of Pearl Harbor” and more than 100 training in the US.
In December in Washington, the defence minister, Richard Marles, said Australia and the US “stand side‑by‑side in working together to contribute to the peace and security of the Indo‑Pacific”.
“There are almost 900 Australian service men and women who are embedded in the United States defence forces across the US … that is an example of the degree in which our two countries work so closely together in respect of defence.”
The Guardian has put questions to Marles and to the defence department.
Iran’s foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, described the US attack as an “atrocity” committed “2000 miles” from Iran’s shores.
“Mark my words: the US will come to bitterly regret the precedent it has set.”
In parliament on Thursday, Greens senator David Shoebridge asked Wong: “the most recent data from your government says there were between 50 and 100 Australian personnel currently embedded on US nuclear-powered attack submarines in the region. Were any Australian personnel on this US submarine when it struck the Iranian frigate and left the survivors to drown?”
Wong said she had seen reports of the US strike, and the US justification for the attack.
“US submarine operations are a matter for the United States,” Wong told the Senate.
“You ask about Australian Defence Force personnel … for operational and security reasons, we don’t disclose specific information regarding Australian personnel.”
The director of international and security affairs for the Australia Institute, Emma Shortis, said she felt it was “highly likely” an Australian citizen was part of the crew onboard the submarine, “but the point is we don’t know”.
“This whole deal, the whole Aukus optimal pathway, is shrouded in secrecy. And I think it’s not only the point that the Australian people don’t know, I think it’s possible the Australian government doesn’t know: that they didn’t have advance warning of this, and they don’t actually know, as we don’t, what kind of submarine this was, and if it was a Virginia class, whether there are Australians on board.”
Shortis said the Trump administration had a history of not sharing information on military strikes with allies, or failing to give allies advanced warning of attacks.
“In a democracy, the Australian people have a right to know if Australia is being dragged into any war, let alone one that is so transparently illegal like this one.
“I think it’s astounding that we can’t answer the question as yet of whether Australia is involved and what the implications of that are.”
Two US P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance planes arrived at Perth’s RAAF Base Pearce on Monday, having flown from the joint US-UK military base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, according to defence sources.
The two aircraft spent a little over one day in Australia before flying out again. Neither the Australian nor US militaries have disclosed the purpose of the stopover in Australia, or what role the planes have had in the ongoing conflict. The P-8As are primarily used for reconnaissance missions but can carry and launch torpedoes.
