- Iran’s scale model of an American aircraft carrier sank in the Persian Gulf.
- The “ship,” actually an unpowered barge, was used as a surrogate for Iranian forces to attack and practice war with the U.S. Navy.
- The barge sank outside a major Iranian port, creating a hazard to ships passing through in the region.
An Iranian barge modified to resemble an American aircraft carrier sank near the Strait of Hormuz. The “carrier,” built to take abuse in propaganda videos made by the Iranian regime, unexpectedly turned on its side near the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas. The fake carrier is now a hazard for local shipping, and experts believe it will need to be towed away and salvaged.
The unnamed barge was recently a star in Iran’s “Great Prophet 14” exercises. The annual air and naval exercises are used to showcase all the ways Iran believes it can stand up to American military power. In last month’s exercises, Iranian forces launched an anti-ship missile at the barge, and commandos fast-roped onto the deck of the make-believe ship.
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The barge, which Iran previously attacked in 2015 (and subsequently repaired), apparently sustained enough damage during that exercise to cause it to sink. The image below was taken by an PLEIADES Earth-imaging satellite as it passed over the Persian Gulf region.
The barge sank in 45 feet of water and now, as Forbes points out, is proving a more formidable opponent as when it was afloat. It's currently near Bandar Abbas, a major Iranian port responsible for shipping the country’s oil overseas and also one of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy’s largest naval bases.
This could very well create tension between the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Navy, the paramilitary force that hammered the fake carrier during the Great Prophet Exercises, and the more traditional Iranian Navy.
The barge is the second Iranian “warship” to sink in the area in the past three months. Back in May, an anti-ship missile accidentally targeted an Iranian Navy vessel, sinking it. The friendly fire incident killed 19 sailors and injured another 15.
Kyle Mizokami is a writer on defense and security issues and has been at Popular Mechanics since 2015. If it involves explosions or projectiles, he's generally in favor of it. Kyle’s articles have appeared at The Daily Beast, U.S. Naval Institute News, The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, Combat Aircraft Monthly, VICE News, and others. He lives in San Francisco.
