Friday, March 21, 2014

Iran Building Fake Nimitz Class Carrier at Cochin Shipyard

oy.  mea culpa.  I trusted google maps too much.  My apologies folks.

Iran is building a crude mock-up of an American aircraft carrier at a ship yard on its Gulf coast and US officials said Friday the goal of the project remains a mystery.

Iran has made no attempt to hide its "curious" construction effort near Bandar Abbas on the Gulf, as commercial satellite imagery has shown a vessel gradually taking shape, resembling the outlines of a Nimitz-class carrier, three administration officials said.

"They got this barge and threw some wood on top of it to make it look like the USS Nimitz. That's all we know for sure," a defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

"We think they're going to try to get some propaganda value out of it," he said. "We find it very curious...We don't know what Iran hopes to gain by building it."

link.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hate to nitpick, but the Iranian mockup is at Gachin.
Cochin, in southern India, contains the shipyard where INS Viraat (the former HMS Hermes) might be docked for refit.

Anonymous said...

That's not nitpicking...their picture is an old carrier in India. Clearly not an Iranian shipyard. Nice reporting!!!!

Anonymous said...

Not mention, this looks nothing like a Nimitz class carrier, (angled flight deck) and the ramp (for launching harriers) is clearly visible on the end flightdeck.

Will Baird said...

My stupid. I went looking and google maps changed the locale trying to be helpful. My apologies guys.