Iran targets dummy US aircraft carrier in Gulf exercises

TEHRAN: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards blasted a mock-up of a US aircraft carrier with missiles on Tuesday during military exercises in sensitive Gulf waters, state television said. The exercises were held near the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for a fifth of global oil output. They were staged at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and its decades-old arch enemy the United States.

Footage of the war games broadcast on state television showed the Guards´ air and naval forces readying for an attack off the country´s southwest coast. Speedboats skimmed across the water in formation before ground forces fired cannons and a missile was launched from a helicopter. The United States Navy on Tuesday criticised Iran as “irresponsible and reckless” for conducting an exercise involving firing a missile at a replica aircraft carrier in Gulf waters.

“We are aware of the Iranian exercise involving attacking a mock-up of a vessel similar to a motionless aircraft carrier,” US Fifth Fleet spokeswoman Rebecca Rebarich told AFP.

“While we are always watchful of this type of irresponsible and reckless behaviour by Iran in the vicinity of busy international waterways, this exercise has not disrupted coalition operations in the area nor had any impacts to the free flow of commerce in the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters.”

The mock-up of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier came into view with rows of dummy fighter jets on either side of its landing strip. The television then cut to rockets being fired out to sea from the backs of trucks, before showing damage to the hull of the mock-up aircraft carrier. Another missile fired from a helicopter left a trail of smoke before appearing to smash into the side of the fake warship. Armed forces were then seen rappelling onto the deck of the vessel, before around a dozen speedboats circle around it.