Drone flight over carrier a rarity

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An Iranian drone that flew over a U. S. aircraft carrier last month was the first to conduct an overflight of an American carrier since 2014, according to a U. S. Navy report obtained by the Associated Press on Wednesday.

The Jan. 12 reconnaissance flight by the Iranian Shahed drone was the latest in a series of tense naval encounters between forces of the Islamic Republic and the U. S. Navy, including the brief detention of 10 American sailors who strayed into Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf.

All the incidents have come after Iran signed a nuclear deal with world powers including the U. S., and point to lingering tensions between the two playing out in key waterways used to transport oil.

An internal U. S. Navy report on the incident, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, said it happened as the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman and the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle were 89 nautical miles southwest of the Iranian port of Bushehr. The U. S. Navy also released video it shot of the incident for the first time.

A French helicopter watched the Shahed- 121 drone on the cloudy day, and the U. S. Navy dispatched a Seahawk helicopter to film it as it flew over the Truman, a nuclearpowered carrier based out of Norfolk, Va.

Iran has more than 1,240 miles of shoreline facing the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman. Control of that territory, including the Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly a third of all oil traded by sea passes, has remained a priority for Iran’s military, and it conducts regular drills in the region.