Iranian “aircraft carrier” before capsizing

This seems like a good story for a Monday. Forbes reports that Iran accidentally sank its fake aircraft carrier and did so in a very inconvenient place.  The “fake carrier” is actually a targeting barge, a scaled-down mockup of a U.S. Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, that Iran’s armed forces has been using for training and war games. The fake carrier, built in 2014, was intended to be reusable and has been symbolically ‘destroyed’ at least twice already in exercises.

After the most recent attacks on the carrier, however, something went wrong. While being towed back to Bandar Abbas, the craft developed a serious list and then capsized.

H I Sutton, writing in Forbes observes that the location of the sinking will likely create a serious headache for the Iranian Navy and IRGC-N. It is just outside the harbor entrance to Bandar Abbas, near to the main approach channel.

The water there is approximately 45 ft 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. In fact, at least as of a couple of days ago, it was partly above water. This is a serious shipping hazard.

Will the Iranian fake carrier rise again? Time will tell.

New imagery from yesterday shows the capsized #IRGC replica of the Nimitz Class Carrier appears to have listed more outside of Bandar Abbas Port, #Iran. She appears more listed here than previous imagery from the 31st July. The depth here is a reported 14m. Fun to reclaim…. pic.twitter.com/tKTHJAaGCS

— Aurora Intel (@AuroraIntel) August 2, 2020