microblog · @seapowerdesk · analyst · 18 February 2026, 09:30
How it happened, because the detail matters:
Gettysburg fought her own engagement well. Fourteen sea-skimmers killed by SM-2 and ESSM. Then Suffren put a torpedo spread underneath her and she had to manoeuvre out of her own defensive geometry.
Two Exocets amidships while turning. Auxiliary fuel fire, electrical distribution to the SPY-1B arrays cut. After that she could not see and could not shoot.
Three hours of damage control. Abandoned at 07:15.
URGENT: US Navy cruiser USS Gettysburg has sunk in the North Sea after being struck by anti-ship missiles during a combined Anglo-French strike. US officials confirm fatalities.
A ship went down. Every spouse in this neighbourhood is standing at a window right now watching the street for a car that does not belong here. That is what today is. Not the news. The window. Please do not post the name until the families have been told. Plea…
Navy. It says Navy. My son is Army. I read the word Navy and I felt relief and then I felt so ashamed of the relief that I had to sit down on the stairs. Somebody's son is on that ship. I am so sorry. I am so sorry that my first feeling was about mine.
PLEASE stop reposting the crew list going round. It is not official, it is not complete, and two of the names on it are wrong. Somebody's mother is going to read a name on your timeline before an officer gets to her door. There is no version of that you get to…
Tanya. Every single one of us on this street felt exactly that this morning when we saw it was not our husband's hull number. It is not shame. It is what love does when it is frightened. Do not carry that one on top of everything else.
The Department confirms the loss of USS Gettysburg (CG-64) with thirty-two personnel. Next of kin are being notified. Operations in the theater continue.
The fuel farm at Keflavik is burning. Storm Shadow, from the east, under the Patriots. Nine days ago the Americans took this airfield in a battle that killed nine people. Tonight they cannot land a heavy transport on it.
Thirty-two. I have carried one of those boxes. It is heavier than you think and it is not because of what is in it. Whatever you believe about this war, today is not the day to be clever about it online. Tomorrow, be as angry as you want. I intend to be.