Iran appears to be preparing to send a warning to the US, as it has allegedly moved a simulated aircraft carrier to sea to destroy it in a live-fire exercise.
The 650-foot-long ship with 16 fake fighter jets on deck, which resembles the Nimitz-class carriers that the US Navy routinely sails in the Persian Gulf, was towed by a tug to the Strait of Hormuz Sunday, according to satellite images released Monday.
“We cannot talk about what Iran hopes to gain by building this model, or what tactical value they would expect to obtain by using such a model in a training scenario or offensive exercise,” said the Navy Commander. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the US 5th Fleet, which operates in the region, told Fox News in a statement.
In this Feb. 15 satellite photo provided by Jular 27 by Maxar Technologies, a model Iran-built aircraft carrier is seen in Bandar Abbas, Iran, before being taken to sea. (Maxar / AP Technologies)
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But Rebarich noted that the United States continues “to rely on the ability of our naval forces to defend against any maritime threat.”
“We do not seek conflict, but we remain prepared to defend US forces and interests against maritime threats in the region,” he added.
An image from Maxar Technologies taken on Sunday shows an Iranian boat rushing towards the carrier, sending waves after the large ship left the port city of the Islamic Republic of Bandar Abbas.
Iranian media and state officials have yet to acknowledge taking the aftershock to the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil passes. However, his appearance there, according to the Associated Press, suggests that Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard is preparing an encore for a similar drill that it conducted in 2015.
An Iranian ship, top left, approaches a model Iran-built aircraft carrier in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday. (Maxar / AP Technologies)
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During that exercise, called “Great Prophet 9”, Iran invaded the fake aircraft carrier with speedboats that fired machine guns and rockets. The land-sea missiles then attacked and destroyed the fake aircraft carrier.
The movement of the new aircraft carrier comes as the USS Nimitz just entered Middle Eastern waters late last week from the Indian Ocean, likely replacing the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Arabian Sea.
The Iranian ship appears to be about 650 feet long and 160 feet wide, while a real Nimitz is over 980 feet long and 245 feet wide.
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Preparation for the apparent drill follows a series of attacks and incidents that fueled tensions between the United States and Iran last summer. Those events reached a climax with the January 3 drone attack near Baghdad International Airport that killed Qassem Soleimani, head of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Iran retaliated with a ballistic missile attack that wounded dozens of US troops stationed in neighboring Iraq.
The timing of the aftershock movement also suggests that a drill aimed at him may be a direct response from Tehran to an incident last week, in which a US F-15 fighter jet approached an Iranian Mahan Air flight over Syria, resulting in minor injuries to some of the passengers on board.
Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press of Fox News contributed to this report.
