Friday, March 29, 2024
Friday, March 29, 2024
Friday, March 29, 2024

Iran Builds Mock-Up of US Military Aircraft to Practice Blowing it Up

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IRANIAN militants fired a missile from a helicopter targeting a replica United States military aircraft to practice for their future attacks, Your Content has learned.

The move came after they maneuvered a mock 650ft US aircraft carrier to the strategic Strait of Hormuz amid heightened tensions with the United States.

The exercises – dubbed ‘Prophet Mohammed 14th’ – were held near the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for a fifth of global oil output.

State television reported the exercise on Tuesday, which is aimed at threatening the U.S. amid tensions between Tehran and Washington.

The U.S. navy has condemned the military exercise as ‘irresponsible and reckless’.

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It comes a day after satellite images showed the aircraft carrier being towed by a tugboat to the strait from the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.

They were staged at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and its decades-old arch enemy the United States.

Footage of the war games broadcast on state television showed the Guards’ air and naval forces readying for an attack off the country’s southwest coast.

Speedboats skimmed across the water in formation before ground forces fired cannons and a missile was launched from a helicopter.

The mock-up of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier came into view with rows of dummy fighter jets on either side of its landing strip.

The television then cut to rockets being fired out to sea from the backs of trucks, before showing damage to the hull of the mock-up aircraft carrier.

Another missile fired from a helicopter left a trail of smoke before appearing to smash into the side of the fake warship.

Armed forces were then seen rappelling onto the deck of the vessel, before around a dozen speedboats circle around it.

‘What was shown today in these exercises, at the level of aerospace and naval forces, was all offensive,’ Guards commander Major

General Hossein Salami told state television.

The war games come only days after Tehran accused US fighter jets of harassing an Iranian commercial airliner in the skies over Syria.

At least four passengers on board the Mahan Air plane were injured in Thursday’s incident, after the pilot took emergency action to avoid the warplanes.

The drill, in a waterway through which 20% of all traded oil passes, underlines the lingering threat of military conflict between Iran and the U.S. after last summer saw a series of incidents targeting oil tankers in the region. 

n January, a U.S. drone strike killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad and Tehran responded by firing ballistic missiles targeting American forces in Iraq.

While the coronavirus pandemic has engulfed both Iran and the U.S. for months, there have been increasing signs of a confrontation as America argues to extend a years-long U.N. weapons embargo on Tehran that is due to expire in October. A recent incident over Syria involving an American jet fighter approaching an Iranian passenger plane also has renewed tensions.

Iranian commandos fast-roped down from a helicopter onto the replica in the footage aired Tuesday from the exercise called ‘Great Prophet 14.’ Other footage showed fast boats encircling the mock-up, kicking up white waves in their wake.

Iranian troops also fired anti-aircraft batteries at a drone target in the exercise from a location that state television described as being near the port city of Bandar Abbas.

Troops also fired missiles launched from trucks on land and fast boats at sea, as well as shoulder-fired missiles.

The Guard will use ‘long-range ballistic missiles with the ability to hit far-reaching aggressor floating targets’ during the drill, said Abbas Nilforoushan, the Guard’s deputy commander for operations, according to Guard website sepahnews.com.

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