The video shows Iranian fast attack boats speeding towards a mock US aircraft carrier, which wallows helplessly, battered by missiles and enveloped in smoke. The training exercise, shown on state television in 2015, was intended to showcase the superiority of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the shipping lanes of the Strait of Hormuz.
This is still the message the Islamic Republic wants to show today: that its lightning-quick, flexible strikes can destroy the US fleet. Realistically, this is not the case. US warships and aircraft would likely wipe out any open assault on an American carrier.
After the shooting down of an American Global Hawk drone with a surface-to-air missile last week, western analysts are trying to decide what military escalation by
