Revolutionary Guard speed boats circle around the replica aircraft carrier. It now poses a threat to shipping. (AP/Sepahnews)
A replica of a U.S. Naval carrier has sunk and threatens shipping at a major Iranian port.
By David Isaac, World Israel News
It was meant to send an intimidating signal to the U.S. – a mockup of a U.S. Nimitz-class aircraft carrier to be used in war games by Iran. The attempt has backfired.
Iran now has egg on its face as the replica has listed hard to starboard “and risks causing a shipping hazard in the approach to the harbour of Bandar Abbas,” UK’s The Sun reported on Tuesday.
The Sun quotes naval expert H.I. Sutton, who wrote in Forbes on Monday that the ship “is meant to be reusable and has been symbolically ‘destroyed’ twice already. But now it really has sunk. And in very much the wrong place… It is just outside the harbour entrance to Bandar Abbas, near to the main approach channel.”
“The water there is approximately 45 feet deep, which is shallow. This makes it worse for Iran because it cannot be left to sink. It is so shallow that other ships face a very real risk of catastrophic damage if they sail over it… This is a serious shipping hazard.”
Satellite imagery shared by Aurora Intel shows the boat sinking.
Last week, Iran was beating its chest as it conducted war games targeting the replica, which carried 16 mock-ups of fighter jets on its deck.
It appeared to be some 200 meters (650 feet) long and 50 meters (160 feet) wide. A real Nimitz is over 300 meters (980 feet) long and 75 meters (245 feet) wide.
Iran released images of speed boats circling around the ship in a mock attack. Drones targeted the bridge of the fake aircraft carrier in a separate attack. Iran also released a video showing missiles launched as part of the war exercise.
A semiofficial news agency close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also published a graphic photoshopping the image of an American carrier into the shape of a casket, with a caption quoting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pledging to seek revenge for the U.S. drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in January.
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