A Baltimore museum submarine's 80-year combat record just got broken, and the story inside reveals how little, and how much, has changed.
For over eight decades, the USS Torsk held a record no one wanted to challenge: the last American submarine to sink an enemy vessel in combat. Then, on March 4, 2026, a US Navy fast-attack submarine fired a Mark 48 heavyweight torpedo at an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, ending that historic drought and plunging the Torsk back into relevance. Brian Auer, operations director of Historic Ships in Baltimore, had to literally update his tour script.
As Business Insider recently reported, the shift was immediate for the museum. Where guides once framed the Torsk as the undisputed final word in American submarine combat, they now emphasize a different distinction: the vessel fired the last two torpedoes of World War II. The sinking of the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena during Operation Epic Fury changed the narrative entirely, transforming the Torsk from a closed chapter into a prologue.
Commissioned in 1944, the Torsk is a Tench-class diesel-electric submarine that served through some of the most tense moments of the 20th century. It patrolled the Sea of Japan in the final days of World War II, sinking two Japanese coastal defense vessels on August 14, 1945, Victory over Japan Day. Later, it joined the naval blockade of Cuba during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war. After decommissioning in 1968 and a few years in the training reserves, it became a floating museum in Baltimore's Inner Harbor in 1972.
Walking through the Torsk today, the continuity between past and present is striking. The after torpedo room, where the final World War II shots were fired, remains cramped and utilitarian. Crew bunks are wedged between loaded torpedo tubes. The conning tower still holds its manual navigation instruments and periscope controls. While the technology has evolved dramatically, the fundamental reality of undersea warfare, operating in tight, dangerous quarters deep below the surface, has not.
What has changed is the scale of destruction. The Torsk displaced roughly 1,570 tons surfaced and carried a crew of 81. A modern Los Angeles-class attack submarine, the type reportedly involved in the March engagement, displaces over 6,900 tons submerged and is powered by a nuclear reactor that allows it to remain submerged indefinitely. The Mark 48 ADCAP torpedo that sank the IRIS Dena is a far cry from the straight-running torpedoes of the 1940s: it can be guided by wire, hunt targets autonomously, and travel at speeds exceeding 55 knots.
The strategic implications of the Iranian engagement extend beyond naval history into current defense markets and procurement strategies. For 80 years, the US submarine fleet operated primarily as a deterrent and intelligence-gathering force. The return to actual torpedo warfare signals a shift toward conventional naval combat that defense contractors and military planners have been anticipating but hoping to avoid. Training programs for submariners, long focused on surveillance and nuclear deterrence, must now re-incorporate live combat maneuvers that had been largely theoretical since the 1940s.
For investors watching defense stocks, the incident reinforces the growing demand for advanced undersea warfare technology. Companies like General Dynamics, which builds Virginia-class submarines, and Raytheon, which produces torpedo systems, stand to benefit from increased emphasis on anti-ship capabilities. The global submarine market, valued at approximately $25 billion annually, is projected to grow significantly as naval powers modernize their fleets for a new era of direct confrontation.
The USS Torsk, painted black to avoid aerial reconnaissance just as modern subs use acoustic stealth, remains docked at Pier 3 in Baltimore. General admission at $21.95 gets you aboard the Torsk, the USS Constellation, and the US Coast Guard Cutter WHEC-37. But the experience carries a different weight now. The wooden deck and emergency buoys are no longer relics of a concluded era. They are the prologue to an active, evolving reality of undersea warfare.
