CLICK to enlarge. High-resolution Airbus Satellite Imagery taken on March 1 captures the final days of the wreck being visible. Prepared by Aurora Intel, and posted here with permission.
Goodbye My Old Friend, Iran's Fake Aircraft Carrier Sinks, Properly, At Last
There is something tragic about watching an over-enthusiastic actor wallow in their stage death. Running it out for longer than the audience can bear to watch.
I must admit to being slightly sad to see the slow demise of this once impressive carnival float. I have been watching this saga unfold for almost a year. In May 2020 the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) prepared the fake aircraft carrier, a barge intended to represent a US Navy Nimitz Class ship, for war games. The barge was the centerpiece of the Great Prophet XIV war games in July 2020. She was circled by IRGC boat swarms and attacked by a range of munitions. She was not supposed to sink though, that would be inefficient.
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However the fake carrier did sink, while being towed back to its base at Bandar Abbas. For a while it lay on its side, with the starboard side just above the water, to the east of the busy harbor entrance. Then the wreck shifted, possibly with the tide. It passed right across the narrow entrance and rested for a while on the breakwater. Then it drifted further, to the location where now is.
For months it appeared that she may be a permanent visible feature. But in January she started to break apart and over the past few weeks has been seen breaking up. And now she is gone, at least to the human eye.
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