As Iran vehemently denies that the warship, IRIS Dena, which sank in international waters off Sri Lanka's coast after a US submarine attack, was not carrying any weapons, an analyst has expressed doubts about whether India would have shared sensitive intelligence that sank the Iranian frigate.
According to Brahma Chellaney, geo-strategist and professor emeritus of Strategic Studies at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, India and the US share sensitive maritime data under the military pacts COMCASA and LEMOA.
While COMCASA (Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement) signed in 2018 enables the US to provide India with access to advanced, encrypted communication systems and equipment, facilitating secure, real-time data exchange between the two militaries, the LEMOA (Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement) offers a framework for governing the logistical assistance, supplies and services exchanged between the Indian and US forces on a reciprocal and reimbursable basis.
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Chellaney, in his X post, said that if a US attack submarine used shared data to locate and sink an Iranian frigate that had just departed an Indian port after participating in a multilateral naval exercise, it would represent a foundational breach of the defence partnership.
“A Moudge-class frigate such as the IRIS Dena, even if fully armed, would be no match for a U.S. nuclear-powered attack submarine operating in India’s maritime backyard. But the circumstances matter. If the Dena carried little or no munitions — as the “peace protocol” of India’s MILAN-2026 exercise requires — the strike looks less like combat than a premeditated execution,” his post read.
Iran maintains that the ship was not carrying any weapons and the sailors were in India on the invitation of the Indian Navy. "The targeting of the Iranian ship is against international law, as they did not possess any type of weapons," Ayatollah Dr Abdul Majeed Hakeemelahi, the representative of Iran's supreme leader in India, told PTI in an interview.
Chellaney said the claim would not be implausible as such naval exercised often focused on camaraderie and colloboration and visiting warships typically did not carry a full combat load of live munitions, unless required for a scheduled live-fire drill.
He added that participating ships were required to remain in a “safe” configuration during the MILAN exercise’s harbour phase. “That phase includes public tours, diplomatic events and a fleet review, all of which require strict safety protocols. Even during the sea phase, where operational drills and live-fire events occur, the ammunition carried is tightly controlled and limited to what is required for specific drills,” the analyst claimed.
He added that if the Iranian warship left Vizag in such a “restricted configuration”, that would amount to an “imbalance” where a lightly-armed ship taking part in a cooperative exercise was tracked and destroyed by the world’s most sophisticated undersea warfare platform.