Video shows US Navy sinking warship

The United States continues to refine its capabilities to counter China’s growing naval threat, as newly released footage shows it recently conducted a ship-sinking exercise.

Newsweek has contacted the Chinese Foreign Ministry for comment.

Why It Matters

Facing China’s rapid expansion of its warship fleet—currently the world’s largest by hull count, with more than 370 vessels—the U.S. military has been strengthening its countermeasures by developing advanced weapons such as the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile and modified precision-guided bombs known as the QUICKSINK.

Sinking exercises, also known as SINKEXs, often feature in U.S. maritime-focused war games and involve the use of live-fire weapons. Such drills give participating units the opportunity to build proficiency and confidence in their weapons and systems through realistic training that cannot be duplicated in simulators, according to the U.S. Navy.

What To Know

U.S. forces carried out the most recent SINKEX during Exercise UNITAS 2025, an annual multinational maritime exercise held from September 15 to October 6 off the U.S. East Coast and ashore, featuring about 8,000 personnel from 25 nations.

The U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command—responsible for maritime operations in the Caribbean, Central America and South America—released a closing ceremony video for the exercise that includes footage showing a warship being targeted in a SINKEX.

Photos released earlier by the command also show MH-60R and MH-60S helicopters taking off from the destroyer USS Thomas Hudner and the amphibious transport dock USS Arlington during a SINKEX as part of Exercise UNITAS 2025 on September 28.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy’s Destroyer Squadron 40 shared photos of Exercise UNITAS 2025 on Facebook showing two helicopters in flight and a targeted warship emitting smoke. It remains unclear what kind of munitions were used during the SINKEX.

The targeted warship could be the former U.S. Navy frigate USS Simpson, which was seen being towed out of the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia on September 25, according to @WarshipCam on the social media platform X.

Citing a photo taken during Exercise UNITAS 2025 and released by the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, @SA_Defensa, a military observer on X, said the SINKEX took place in the Atlantic Ocean about 200 miles off the coast of North Carolina.

What People Are Saying

U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Carlos Sardiello, the commander of the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, said in a news release on September 17: “Our combined efforts as a maritime sea service are critical to ensuring free and open seas … UNITAS is an extraordinary opportunity for us to unite, operate, enhance proficiency, and improve interoperability of participating forces to respond to common threats.”

The U.S. Navy’s Destroyer Squadron 40 wrote on Facebook on Friday: “Our live fire sinking exercise (SINKEX), a keystone event of UNITAS 2025, demonstrated the lethality our warfighters bring in security of the region every day. Each SINKEX is conducted in strict compliance with applicable U.S. environmental laws, regulations, and permit requirements to minimize potential environmental harm.”

What Happens Next

It remains to be seen whether the U.S. military will release further details about the SINKEX during Exercise UNITAS 2025 or conduct additional ship-sinking drills before the end of the year.