Report: Tehran Moves Mock US aircraft Carrier to Hormuz

By Staff, Agencies

The Associated Press [AP] reported that Iran has moved a mock US aircraft carrier to the Strait of Hormuz amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington.

According to satellite images released on Monday the ship is a replica of the USS Nimitz, a nuclear-powered multipurpose aircraft carrier used by the US Navy in the Gulf.

Photos taken on Sunday by space technology company Maxar Technologies show an Iranian ship heading at high speed towards the aircraft carrier, forming waves in its wake, after being towed from the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas. 

Neither Iranian state media nor Iranian officials have commented on the development, but the presence of this model is similar to an attack simulation carried out in 2015 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

The military exercise, called “Great Prophet 9,” used speedboats to fire guns and launch rockets at the aircraft carrier. Surface-to-sea missiles subsequently targeted and destroyed the mock vessel.

The Bahrain-based 5th Fleet of the US Navy, which patrols the Middle East sea lanes, has also not commented on the development.

The moves come after an Iranian civilian airliner was threateningly approached by US fighter jets over Syrian airspace last week.