Mock-up US aircraft carrier sinks during Iran's war games, endangering passing ships

A mock-up of a US aircraft carrier used by Iran’s military during recent military exercises has accidentally sunk in shallow waters, putting passing ships at risk, satellite imagery showed.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) used the fake aircraft carrier for target practice during war games in the Arabian Gulf in late July.

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IRGC spokesman Ramezan Sharif said on Sunday that considering the cost of building the mock aircraft carrier, it should not have been have sunk. He added that the IRGC needs it for future drills, the semi-official ILNA news agency reported.

But the fake carrier appears to have sunk, and in a problematic place, commercial satellite imagery showed.

The water where the carrier has sunk is approximately 45 feet deep, which is considered shallow, Forbes reported.

“It is so shallow that other ships face a very real risk of catastrophic damage if they sail over it,” the Forbes report said.

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The carrier initially began sinking when it was being towed back to the Bandar Abbas port after being attacked in the war games and the situation has deteriorated since then, according to the report.

This was not the first time the IRGC’s naval forces used dummy American warships in military drills. In 2015, Iranian missiles hit a mock-up resembling a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier in the Arabian Gulf.