Interesting and ironic in equal measure, the reason behind
Dena's presence in the Indian Ocean; and it's got nothing to do with escaping from the Gulf.
In February, the Indian Navy conducted an
International Fleet Review, an exercise/meet to foster goodwill and cooperation between international navies. Main participant, obviously, India, but representative ships and aircraft from over a dozen countries. Some examples; USS
Pinkney (USA), RFS
Marshall Shposhnikov (Russia), ROKS
Gang Gamchan (S Korea) and of course IRIS
Dena.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intern...t_Review_2026#
Checkout the fleet photo; around 40 ships in 7 columns led by INS
Vikrant.
My 2 cents on the sportsmanship of its sinking? War or SMO, USA and Israel are shooting at anything Iranian. Iran is shooting at Israeli and US assets, and anything else that isn't openly hostile to them. The
Dena is armed with SAMS, Anti-Ship Missiles and torpedoes, and it's in the same ocean as Diego Garcia and a USN carrier group. Not to sink it would be criminally irresponsible.