09 Jun 2020, 5:06 pm
Iran is building an replica of the Nimitz-class carrier. Iran has done this before in February 2015 during a military exercise called "Great Prophet 9." During that drill, Iran swarmed the fake aircraft carrier with speedboats firing machine guns and rockets. Surface-to-sea missiles later targeted and destroyed the fake carrier. But one has to wonder?
The replica carries 16 mock-ups of fighter jets on its deck, according to satellite photos taken by Maxar Technologies. The vessel appears to be some 650 feet long and 160 feet wide.
Iran is closer than it has ever been in creating a nuclear weapon capability.
Iran may be getting close to having enough nuclear material to make a single bomb if it chooses to do so. In Febrary, the International Atomic Energy Agency — the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog — wrote in a confidential report seen by the Associated Press that Iran has nearly tripled its stockpile of low-enriched uranium, from 820 pounds last November to 2,250 pounds (just over a ton). To make a weapon, the Arms Control Association estimates Iran would need more than 2,300 pounds of uranium enriched to over 90 percent purity. That’s the level required for weapons-grade uranium. Based on the IAEA’s report, Iran’s stockpile is enriched to under 5 percent — far away from that level. [But then again Iran closely guards it secrets!]
Sources:
Iran appears to build fake aircraft carrier as tensions with US grow
What Iran stockpiling uranium for a nuclear bomb is really about
So one wonders if the mock aircraft carrier, rather than being a target to a conventional attack; might serve as a demonstration platform for its first nuclear tests.
