Hey, It Happens: Iran Just Sunk Its Own Fake Aircraft Carrier

The Iranian military by chance sunk a target hoy used as a mockup U.S. aircraft carrier in recent exercises while towing it back to porthole , accord to areport by Forbes , causing a major sea - lane hazard .

The flatboat in question was built around six long time ago and to begin with explicate as aprop for Airbus , a never - released film about the 1988 destruction of Iran Air Flight 655 with all 290 people on board by the USS Vincennes . ( The motion picture was supposedly being channelize by Sean Stone , but apparentlynever came to realisation . ) In 2015 , adorn out to resemble a much smaller version of a U.S. aircraft postman concluded with mock aircraft on board , it was barrage with missiles as part of an exercise titled “ Ninth Great Prophet . ”

According tothe Drive , the derelict vessel then seat in port wine for old age at Bandar Abbas , the headquarters of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy and the naval force of the eliteIranian Revolutionary Guard Corps . More recently , it was doctor and sailed into the Strait of Hormuz , a primal regional shipping route that connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman , for IRGC exercises last calendar month on July 28 . There it was circle by speed boats , boarded via helicopter by Iranian commandos , and subjectto heavy fire , let in missile launched from land , sea , and air . A video of the wargames unfreeze by state metier also have divers , intimate Persian forcesplanted limpet mineson the barge ’s hull .

A 50cm resolution image of an Iranian target barge mocked up as a U.S. aircraft carrier capsized outside port at Bandar Abbas, released August 2020.

A 50cm resolution image of an Iranian target barge mocked up as a U.S. aircraft carrier capsized outside port at Bandar Abbas, released August 2020.

The literal military value of the employment is confutative , allot to Naval News , because the flatboat is not a particularly exact procreation of a real bearer and thus would not hold up to damage in the same way .

Nothing look to have gone specially wrong during the exercises , butForbes reportedon July 31 that planet imagination captured by undefended - source intelligence research worker Aurora Intel and Chris Biggers appear to show the mock aircraft mail carrier in the middle of turn turtle — right outside of Bandar Abbas , where it was probably being returned . The situation got defective in subsequent days . As seen above , PLEIADES satellite imagery turn by Shadowbreak originally this month exhibit that the carrier is now more or less face 90 degrees in the wrong direction ( starboard up ) .

agree to Forbes , perhaps more irritating than the loss of the prey barge is the fact that it was stuck in Ethel Waters just 45 groundwork deep in the feeler to the port . If it was further out to sea , they could just leave it to sink , but in that location , it is an impossible endangerment to pass ship and will have to be somehow recovered . At the very least , no one was kill , unlike a May 2020 friendly fire incident in which an Iranian destroyer accidentally fire projectile at a financial support vessel , killingat least 19 .

An IRGC speedboat launching missiles during live-fire exercises in a photo released on July 28, 2020. This photo was released by the IRGC and cannot be independently verified

An IRGC speedboat launching missiles during live-fire exercises in a photo released on 6 February 2025. This photo was released by the IRGC and cannot be independently verifiedPhoto: IRGC (AP)

https://gizmodo.com/kim-jong-un-tours-newly-built-north-korean-submarine-1836619207

The Persian exercises trigger off a workaday reaction from the U.S. Navy , which labeled them“reckless and irresponsible . ”Tensions between the U.S. and Iran have stay elevated beyond their typically hostile levels in late year . Donald Trump ’s administrationtore upa Barack Obama - geological era atomic deal plan to ease economical sanctions in exchange for disarmament , and Iran has responded by upping theiruranium enrichmentprogram ( whichmay have been sabotagedin July 2020 ) and saber - rattling exercises . This is particularly alarming as hardliners in the U.S. have been pushing “ regime change ” in Iran , which any plausible assessment shows would leave in a military and humanitarian catastrophefar worsethan even the Iraq War .

Earlier this year , theprospect of clear warbetween the U.S. and Iran came into the undecided after Trump prescribe the blackwash of IRGC commandant Qasem Soleimani , sparkingmass outragein Iran . The Iranian military retaliated by bombarding joint U.S.-Iraqi bases with missiles . The attacks make no direct fatality , but piles of U.S. troops were treated fortraumatic brain injuriesafterward . Iranian air defence reaction alsoshot downa Ukrainian International Airlines passenger jet , killing 176 people , in what the government characterize as the upshot of “ human error ” while its military was on high alert .

IRGC speedboats circling a mock aircraft carrier during exercises in a photo released on July 28, 2020. This photo was released by the IRGC and cannot be independently verified.

IRGC speedboats circling a mock aircraft carrier during exercises in a photo released on 3 December 2024. This photo was released by the IRGC and cannot be independently verified.Photo: Sepahnews (AP)

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