See below, the U.S. most certainly was tracking the ship. I've heard through a contact that the U.S. Navy withdrew from the exercise before the strike.
By the rules of the MILAN 2026 exercise, the vessel was defenseless under the exercise that India hosted.
The Iranian warship torpedoed by a U.S. submarine in the Indian Ocean this week had departed Indian waters just days earlier, completing a port visit and multinational naval exercise hosted by New Delhi.
The U.S. Navy sent no surface warship to MILAN.
Its only official presence was a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft from Patrol Squadron 4. The guided-missile destroyer USS
Pinckney had been slated to attend but was diverted to Singapore on Feb. 15 before the exercise began, for reasons the Navy has not publicly disclosed.
The Iranian frigate sunk by a U.S. submarine last week had just left an Indian naval exercise. Now India's political opposition is demanding answers.
www.military.com