Iran Is Practicing to Sink an American Aircraft Carrier
Iran’s demonstrations displaying the sinking of American carriers are intended to show off the country’s military might and capabilities. But these “capabilities” are far from reality.
The USS Harry S. Truman was targeted by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels over the weekend, marking the latest escalation in the low-level Red Sea conflict carried out by the Yemen-based terror group. While the armed group claimed to have conducted direct attacks on the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, the Navy later clarified that none of the 11 drones and one ballistic missile launched by the rebels came close to hitting the Truman or any other warships in the aircraft carrier group positioned in the Red Sea. The Islamic Republic of Iran and its regional proxy affiliates may dream of striking an American carrier—but so far, they have only succeeded at such a feat in domestic wargame exercises.
Iran’s Storied History of Blowing Up Fake U.S. Carriers
During Tehran’s Great Prophet 9 military exercise in 2015, the naval branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) carried out a practice strike on a mock-up Nimitz carrier. State-run media displayed images of a ship made up to look like a U.S. Nimitz carrier. An array of torpedoes, rockets and other weapons struck the mock-up warship, blowing holes in its side and inflicting other damage. According to the presenter of the demonstration, the Iranian-made Fateh-110 missile was responsible for striking the Nimitz lookalike. In response to the “drill,” then-spokesperson for the Fifth Fleet commander Kevin Stephens quipped, “It seems they’ve attempted to destroy the equivalent of a Hollywood movie set.”
Another Nimitz-like carrier was targeted in Iran’s Great Prophet 14 military drills in 2020. In fact, it appears Iran simply reconstructed the mock-up carrier destroyer during its 2015 drills to be targeted again. The faux carrier became the subject of humor both within Iran and in the West after it began to capsize and sink while being towed to Bander Abbas. As detailed in a Forbes piece, “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.”
Although Iran has yet to sink an actual American warship to date, the Iranians do have a naval “kill” to their name: one of their own vessels. In 2020, the Iranian frigate designated as Jamaran accidently struck its Konarak support ship, after the ship failed to distance itself properly from a naval target it was carrying. Nineteen Iranian Navy sailors were killed in the mishap and another 15 were wounded.
Could Iran Actually Sink an American Aircraft Carrier?
Iran’s demonstrations displaying the sinking of American carriers are intended to show off the country’s military might and capabilities. But these “capabilities” are far from reality. The U.S. Navy’s Nimitz-class and upcoming Ford-class carriers are designed to withstand maritime attacks and the service overall remains massively superior to Iran’s own naval capabilities. Iran’s reliance on expanding its drone arsenal perhaps poses the greatest threat to American warships, since unmanned aerial vehicles can be deployed in swarms—but it is unlikely that a drone, or even multiple drones, could do much to sink a Nimitz-class carrier.
About the Author: Maya Carlin
Maya Carlin, National Security Writer with The National Interest, is an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has by-lines in many publications, including The National Interest, Jerusalem Post, and Times of Israel. You can follow her on Twitter: @MayaCarlin. Carlin has over 1,000 articles published over the last several years on various defense issues.
Image: Shutterstock / viper-zero.