{"id":315588,"date":"2026-03-06T07:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T07:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/315588\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T07:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T07:11:11","slug":"australians-on-board-us-nuclear-sub-that-struck-iranian-ship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/315588\/","title":{"rendered":"Australians on board US nuclear sub that struck Iranian ship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three Australian defence members were on board a US nuclear submarine that sunk an Iranian ship, prime minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed.<\/p>\n

The submarine struck an Iranian frigate<\/a> with a torpedo near Sri Lanka as part of US attacks, which killed 87 people.<\/p>\n

“We wouldn’t normally confirm such an issue, but given our (national security committee) meetings and the public interest, I can confirm that there were three Australian persons on board that vessel,” Albanese told Sky News on Friday.<\/p>\n

“I can confirm also, though, that no Australian personnel have participated in any offensive action against Iran.”<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

The Australian defence personnel were on board the submarine as part of a training rotation for the AUKUS security pact, which will provide Australia with nuclear vessels.<\/p>\n

The prime minister said Australian defence personnel were part of long-standing arrangements to be part of US vessels.<\/p>\n

“What they do is ensure that Australian Defence Force personnel, where they’re embedded in third countries defence assets,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They act in accordance with Australian law, with Australian policy, and that, of course, is taking place across the board.”<\/p>\n

It came as flights carrying Australians fleeing the Middle East were arriving with empty seats as late-notice airline confirmations and safety concerns keep some citizens from returning home.<\/p>\n

Another two flights from Dubai have arrived and several more are scheduled to depart from the war-torn region, as Australians were encouraged to keep their tickets and stay in constant contact with their airlines.<\/p>\n

One plane arrived in Sydney on Thursday night and another in Melbourne on Friday morning, bringing home more than 440 Australians.<\/p>\n

A flight from Abu Dhabi is expected to land in Sydney on Friday morning.<\/p>\n

Emirates is expected to operate another four flights from Dubai in the next 24 hours, while Etihad and Qatar Airways have tentatively scheduled a small number of flights that might not go ahead due to the closure of airspace.<\/p>\n

The flights landing in Australia have not always been full as people are only getting a couple of hours’ notice from the airlines and some are hesitant to fly because of safety concerns.<\/p>\n

The first commercial flight to leave the region for Australia since the outbreak of the US and Israeli conflict with Iran arrived late on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Australia has been working “really cooperatively” with the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke. (Source: Getty)<\/p>\n

“Our priority is being able to get Australians safe and get them back home,” he said.<\/p>\n

While the federal opposition has called for repatriation flights to operate in the region for stranded Australians, Mr Burke said regular flights were the best option.<\/p>\n

“The simple reality is when you’ve got more than 100,000 people in the region who have been stranded, a charter flight option isn’t going to scratch the surface on that,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You really need to rely on the commercial airlines.”<\/p>\n

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Ted O’Brien said military planes were used at short notice to evacuate Australians from Israel in 2025, New Caledonia in 2024 and Afghanistan in 2021.<\/p>\n

There are 24,000 Australians in the UAE, made up of travellers and residents, while about 115,000 are across the broader Middle East.<\/p>\n

The federal government has deployed military assets to assist stranded Australian citizens and permanent residents.<\/p>\n

A Royal Australian Air Force C17A Globemaster heavy transport aircraft and KC-30A multi-role tanker transport have been deployed as a precautionary measure.<\/p>\n

Albanese came under fire from the opposition after he urged Australians to heed travel advice and take up commercial options to return home.<\/p>\n

“The government is failing to respond adequately,” opposition defence spokesman James Paterson told reporters.<\/p>\n

“Every other nation of comparable size and civilians is either chartering aircraft or sending their military planes.”<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the New Zealand Government announced it would send two defence force aircraft to repatriate its citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three Australian defence members were on board a US nuclear submarine that sunk an Iranian ship, prime minister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,42,5107,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-315588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-australia","tag-headlines","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}