Mexico Hands Over U.S. Practice Torpedo Recovered Off Ensenada

Overview

• Mexican naval personnel recovered an MK 54 REXTORP practice torpedo inside Mexico’s exclusive economic zone about 21.3 nautical miles southwest of Ensenada and later handed it to U.S. naval attaché representatives for return to U.S. authorities.
• The device was lost by the U.S. Navy during a training exercise roughly 18 nautical miles west of San Clemente Island on September 2 and drifted south over the following weeks.
• Recovery work was delayed by bad weather and by the expiration of the torpedo’s tracking battery, which made locating the floating device more difficult before Mexican crews retrieved it.
• Mexican oceanographic and meteorological analysis linked prevailing winds and currents between San Diego and Ensenada to the torpedo’s southward drift, explaining how U.S. training gear entered Mexican waters.
• The MK 54 REXTORP is a non‑warhead, recoverable exercise torpedo used for training launches and recoveries, and the coordinated Mexican‑U.S. response followed standard naval procedures for identifying ownership and arranging transfer.