This Video Doesn’t Show Royal Navy’s Nuclear-Powered Submarine in Arabian Sea

We found that the video dated back to at least January and is not related to the ongoing war in the Gulf region.

Fact-Check | The video is old and does not show the Royal Navy submarine in the Arabian Sea.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Following the announcement of the crisis in West Asia coming to a pause, a video is now going viral on the internet to claim that it shows a British nuclear-powered submarine being deployed into the Arabian Sea.

What did the viral post say?: It was shared with a caption that said, "BREAKING: A British nuclear-powered Royal Navy submarine just arrived in the Arabian Sea. This contradicts what Starmer has been saying that the UK is committed to "not getting drawn into the wider conflict." He’s lying. This is an escalation by the UK. They are now in the war..."

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: X (Formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)

The post had gained over six lakh views on the platform. Archives of similar such claims could be found here, here, and here.

What's the truth?: The video, dating back to January, showed the Royal Navy's Astute class submarine, HMS Anson, travelling in Gibraltar. This simply meant that the viral claim was false.

How did we find that out?: At first, we conducted a reverse image search on the different keyframes of the viral video.

• This directed us to a report published on Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation (GBC)'s website on 19 January.

• It said that the Royal Navy's second newest Astute-class submarine, HMS Anson, was in Gibraltar. The Ministry of Defence had said that Gibraltar was an important hub for the Royal Navy.

Reports of nuclear-powered submarine in Arabian Sea: The Daily Mail, in a report, claimed that a nuclear-powered Royal Navy submarine had arrived in the Arabian Sea, which had the capacity to launch cruise missile attacks.

• HMS Anson, which carried Tomahawk Block IV land-attack missiles, is said to take up position in the deep waters of the northern Arabian Sea.

The report was published on 21 March.

(Source: Daily Mail/Screenshot)

Conclusion: It is evident that the video is old and is being shared with an incorrect claim.

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