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The Only Time in History a Nuclear Submarine Sunk an Enemy Vessel

Austin Smith

Published: December 9, 2024 9:55 am

Key Points

• Originally mainly anti-ship weapons, submarines have developed into multi-role platforms.
• The only nuclear submarine known to have sunk an enemy vessel, the Argentine cruiser Belgrano, during the 1982 Falklands War is the British nuclear-powered submarine HMS Conqueror. 
• Modern submarines, especially nuclear-powered ones, are increasingly focused on deterrence and strategic roles in geopolitical conflicts.
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Transcript:

[00:00:00] Austin Smith: Let’s jump forward to the present. What role are submarines playing today?

[00:00:04] Austin Smith: What role could they play? And I’m thinking specifically about this Pacific theater where tensions are heating up, and we’ve talked a lot about Taiwan, and you spoke about how the role that submarines played in the Pacific theater in the past. So talk to me about, why this World War II vehicle is making a comeback, so to speak, and why it’s important today.

[00:00:23] Michael Muir: Yeah, well, Again, this, in the world war definition, we think of the submarine as a primarily as an anti ship weapon. But that’s not, no longer the case with submarines. Now, if you actually want to, to measure the number of times that a nuclear submarine has sunk an enemy vessel, I can tell you right now, and I know exactly which one it was.

[00:00:46] Michael Muir: It’s one, and only one. It was a British nuclear submarine, nuclear powered submarine called the HMS Conqueror, and it sank an Argentinian. light cruiser called the Belgrano in 1982. The Belgrano was actually an American built ship, that was built before World War II, and was sold to Argentina, and this was during the Falklands War, the British set up an exclusion zone.

[00:01:08] Michael Muir: And the Belgrano was not in it, but it was nearby, and the British considered it a threat, so it was sunk, and then that prevented the Argentinian Navy from taking part in the war. It was a very controversial incident, but later on, the captain of the Belgrano actually said, this was a legitimate war target, so yeah, it’s not really an anti ship weapon anymore, largely owing to lack of opportunity.