Iran moved a simulated aircraft carrier to the strategic Strait of Hormuz amid tensions between Tehran and the United States, satellite photos showed on Monday, likely indicating that the Islamic Republic is soon planning to use it for live-fire drills. An image by Maxar Technologies taken on Sunday shows the fast speed of an Iranian boat towards the carrier, sending waves in its wake, after a tugboat pulled it into the strait from the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.
Maxar Technologies via AP
A drill aimed at the ship may be a direct response from Tehran to an incident last week. That event involved a US F-15 fighter jet approaching a Mahan Air flight over Syria, which saw the passengers of the Iranian plane injured.
Iranian state media and officials have yet to acknowledge taking the aftershock to the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil passes. However, his appearance there suggests that Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard is preparing an encore for a similar drill that it conducted in 2015.
The Bahrain-based 5th Fleet of the US Navy, which patrols the waterways of the Middle East, continues “to rely on the ability of our naval forces to defend against any maritime threat,” said spokeswoman Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich when asked about the movements of the fake carrier.
“We cannot talk about what Iran hopes to gain by building this model, or what tactical value they would expect to gain from using that model in a training or exercise setting,” Rebarich told The Associated Press. “We are not seeking conflict, but we remain prepared to defend US forces and interests against maritime threats in the region.”
The replica resembles the Nimitz-class carriers that the US Navy routinely sails in the Persian Gulf from the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the waterway. The class’ namesake USS Nimitz has just entered Middle Eastern waters late last week from the Indian Ocean, likely to replace USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Arabian Sea.
It is unclear when or if the Nimitz will pass through the Strait of Hormuz or not during its time in the Middle East. The USS Abraham Lincoln, deployed last year when tensions initially increased, spent months in the Arabian Sea before traversing the strait. The Eisenhower crossed the strait early last week.
The replica carries 16 models of fighter jets on its deck, according to satellite photos taken by Maxar Technologies. The boat appears to be about 200 meters (650 feet) long and 50 meters (160 feet) wide. A true Nimitz is over 300 meters (980 feet) long and 75 meters (245 feet) wide.
The model looks very similar to a similar one used in February 2015 during a military exercise called “Great Prophet 9”. During that exercise, Iran invaded the fake aircraft carrier with speedboats firing machine guns and rockets. The land-sea missiles then attacked and destroyed the fake aircraft carrier.
That exercise, however, occurred when Iran and world powers remained locked in negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program. Today, the agreement born from those negotiations is in tatters. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the agreement in May 2018. Iran later responded by slowly abandoning almost all tenants of the agreement, although it still allows UN inspectors to access its nuclear sites.
Last summer, a series of attacks and incidents further fueled tensions between Iran and the US, culminating in the January 3 drone attack near Baghdad International Airport that killed Qassem Soleimani. , head of the expeditionary Quds of the Guard, or Jerusalem, Force. Iran retaliated with a ballistic missile attack that wounded dozens of US troops stationed in neighboring Iraq.
On Friday, Iranian authorities said on Friday that two US fighter jets flew dangerously close to an Iranian airliner over war-torn Syria, forcing the pilot to take emergency measures and causing panic on board. However, the US military questioned Iran’s account of the incident.
US Navy Captain Bill Urban, spokesman for the US Central Command, told CBS News that a US F-15 fighter jet “Performed a standard visual inspection of an aircraft of Mahan Air passengers at a safe distance of approximately 1,000 meters from the plane “on Thursday night.
CENTCOM released the statement after Iranian state television aired images of fans aboard screaming passengers when the Mahan Air plane appeared to suddenly change course. Apparently, another video filmed on a phone showed at least two fighter jets flying alongside the plane.
A passenger with blood running down his forehead and another who had fallen to the ground were seen in the video, and a jet was visible through the window.
IRIB via Reuters
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