Wreck Of Iran's Fake Aircraft Carrier - update
The sorry saga of IRGC's (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) fake aircraft carrier continues. The wreck, next to the entrance of Bandar Abbas Navy Base, recently began to break up. Now it appears to either be being cleared, or to have lost large chunks.
Google Earth has quite a few excellent high-resolution images of the carrier throughout its lifetime. Here is is shortly before it was most recently used as a target for IRGC war games. The aircraft are models designed to represent US Navy FA-18s and, oddly, F-5Es (which Iran uses but which the US has never placed aboard carriers):
The vessel capsized and sunk while being towed back to Bandar Abbas at the end of July 2020. Since then it has rolled over onto its back and drifted with the currents several times. The last publicly-available high-resolution satellite imagery shows the carrier largely intact. But it is floating upside down near its current location:
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The demise of the fake carrier, intended to represent US Navy carriers, was supposed to be cinematic gold. But it always looked a bit lackluster, even when it was circled by a boat swarm and hit by missiles. The thing is, it was almost certainly supposed to survive and be reused. But it sank, and in very much the worst place. Fortunately or unfortunately, it has shifted. It is currently west of the main port entrance at Bandar Abbas, Iran's largest naval base.
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