American warship sunk off Scottish coast by UK-US forces

The USS Klakring was struck by a missile and sank in the North Atlantic during the operation at the MOD’s Hebrides Range.

A US Navy warship has been sunk in Scottish waters as part of a joint military operation. The USS Klakring was struck by a missile from the USS Paul Ignatius with Royal Navy vessels and aircraft also involved in the operation at the MOD’s Hebrides Range.

UK and US forces have been undertaking live-fire exercises in the North Atlantic off the coast of the Western Isles this month. Known as Atlantic Thunder 2026, the operation included a joint-exercise targeting the USS Klakring, a decommissioned warship.

Dramatic footage published by the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet shows the moment the frigate was hit by a missile during the exercise. After launching a missile from the USS Paul Ignatius, explosions can be seen onboard the USS Klakring as smoke and flames erupt from the vessel while it is destroyed.

The operation was originally planned to take place in May, with the sinking of USS Klakring by co-ordination between British and American forces the centrepiece, but it was delayed by four months.

Launched in 1982, the USS Klakring was an Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate named for after World War II Rear Admiral Thomas B. Klakring. It was decommissioned in 2013 after three decades in active service and had been stored at the Philadelphia Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Pennsylvania before it was brought to Campbeltown ahead of the exercise.

All hazardous materials had been removed from the vessel before being sent to the bottom of the ocean.

It is not the first time a former US warship has been sunk as part of training exercises between UK and US forces off the coast of Scotland. A previous Atlantic Thunder operation took place in September 2022 in which HMS Westminster, a Wildcat helicopter and three RAF Typhoons sank the decommissioned frigate USS Boone alongside the US Navy and the US Air Force.

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