Iranian mock-up of aircraft carrier.
At the same time as President Barack Obama was sending New Year greetings to the Iranian people Thursday, March 20, US satellites snapped shots of a mockup of Iran’s first aircraft carrier under construction at the Revolutionary Guards naval base of Bandar Abbas. After decoding the images, US intelligence experts were astonished to find it was a replica of a US Nimitz-class super-carrier. DEBKAfile reports that the construction work was first picked up by drones from the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, which operates in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea and Arabian Sea.
In his message, the US president challenged Iran’s leaders to “take meaningful and verifiable steps to assure the world that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only” for the sake of “a new beginning,” including “a better relationship with the United States and the American people, rooted in mutual interest and mutual respect.”
Of the US Navy’s 10 operational Nimitz-class carriers, two – the USS George H.W. Bush and the USS Harry S. Truman — are currently deployed in the Middle East. Each is 330 meters long and carries on is decks up to 3,000 naval and air crew and 85-90 fighter craft and helicopters.
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You go to war with the pResident that you have.
David DeGerolamo
