USA TODAY US Edition

Iran replicates U.S. carrier, draws suspicion.

Navy spokesman calls it ‘akin to a Hollywood set’

- Brian Tumulty

The senior Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee says Iran’s constructi­on of a mock-up U.S. aircraft carrier demonstrat­es Iran’s continued lack of good faith.

“We don’t really know what it means, but I for sure don’t trust the Iranians,” Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., said Saturday. “It’s some kind of a ruse and whatever they are up to, it’s no good.”

The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, which disclosed the constructi­on of the carrier replica on Thursday, says it is being built on “pontoons with steel constructi­on to replicate hull, flight deck and superstruc­ture.” The 5th Fleet operates in Persian Gulf, Red Sea and Arabian Sea.

“We do not assess that Iran has the capability to build an aircraft carrier,” 5th Fleet spokesman Jason Salata said in an e-mail. “This carrier mock-up is more akin to a Hollywood set, than an actual warship.”

As for the vessel’s seaworthin­ess, he said, “We’ll have to wait and see.”

An Iran expert at the American Enterprise Institute said the mock-up vessel could signal plans for “a new level of effort and sophistica­tion” in Iran’s naval training for the use of “unconventi­onal doctrine and capabiliti­es to confront superior U.S. naval power.”

“Their military has been investing heavily in traditiona­l capabiliti­es to deter the U.S. Navy from conducting major operations near their borders,” AEI resident fellow J. Matthew McInnis said. “The desire to create more realistic training scenarios makes sense. Propaganda is certainly one of the motivation­s for Iran’s military exercises, so I would not be surprised if they destroyed the mock-up during one.”

“We do not assess that Iran has the capability to build an aircraft carrier.”

Jason Salata, 5th Fleet spokesman

Michael Eisenstadt, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, predicts the mock-up carrier will “make the Iranians look pretty silly, however they plan on using it.”

“They are either building this mock-up of a carrier for propaganda purposes in order to substantia­te their claim that they can build a carrier, or they are planning (as already reported in the news media) to make a propaganda film or spectacle where the carrier is destroyed by Iranian ships, to demonstrat­e their ability to act on previous threats to destroy U.S. carriers in the Gulf,” Eisenstadt said in an e-mail.

Iran is trying to develop a full range of military capabiliti­es, including precision munitions, armed drones, stealth fighters and space satellites, he said.

Iran’s first domestical­ly built destroyer was launched in 2010, according to Iranian television, which also reported in 2011 that initial designs for aircraft carriers “have been approved and the process of research, design and manufactur­e will start soon.”

A Defense Department spokesman said U.S. officials are not sure what tactical value Iran hopes to gain by building a mock-up of a U.S. aircraft carrier.

“We are aware that Iran has constructe­d a floating barge that resembles a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier near Bandar Abbas,” said the spokesman, Lt. Col. Tom Crosson. “Commercial­ly available imagery shows its constructi­on.” Bandar Abbas is a port city on the Strait of Hormuz.

Two Nimitz-class carriers — the USS George H.W. Bush and the USS Harry S. Truman — are operating in the Middle East.

The Navy has 10 operationa­l Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, including the USS Nimitz, which was the first of the supercarri­ers commission­ed in 1975. All 10 of the 1,092-foot-long, nuclear-powered ships were built at the Newport News Shipbuildi­ng Co. in Newport News, Va.

Since the disclosure Thursday, there has been speculatio­n that the Iranians could be planning to destroy it, for propaganda value, as part of naval training exercises.

 ?? DIGITALGLO­BE VIA U.S. NAVY ?? Iran appears to be constructi­ng a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier near Bandar Abbas as seen through commercial satellite imagery. The U.S. Navy says that this is not a functionin­g aircraft carrier, but rather a mock-up of an actual U.S. carrier.
DIGITALGLO­BE VIA U.S. NAVY Iran appears to be constructi­ng a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier near Bandar Abbas as seen through commercial satellite imagery. The U.S. Navy says that this is not a functionin­g aircraft carrier, but rather a mock-up of an actual U.S. carrier.
 ?? CANDICE VILLARREAL, U.S. NAVY ?? The Nimitzclas­s aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. Iran is building a mockup of a Nimitz-class carrier.
CANDICE VILLARREAL, U.S. NAVY The Nimitzclas­s aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. Iran is building a mockup of a Nimitz-class carrier.

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