Ababil-3
For The Saker Blog
Iranian Drone Overflies U.S. Carrier—Tehran Unafraid, Defiant, Resistant
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower on routine patrol in the Persian Gulf was photographed with video sensors aboard an IRGC unarmed drone.
The specific date of the video captures and the exact location were not reported.
The drone-type was reported by Press-TV as an Ababil-3, operated by the IRGC navy.
The drone has a flying range of 100 kilometers and a top speed of 200 kilometers per hour.
Ababil-3 can fly to a ceiling of 5,000 meters and enjoys a high photography and imaging technology.
The Iranian drone enjoys unique strategic capabilities and it has a 4-hour-long flight durability.
Self-evident is the low intensity counter-war Tehran wages versus the war the Hegemon operates, hybrid in all its manifestations.
Merely displaying this video pulls the cloak of Power Projection from the naval task force. Should the time come for Iran to extract a price from the US Navy and CENTCOM, an inexpensive drone (likely, a swarm of drones), will reach out and damage hundreds of billions of dollars of vessels, aircraft and thousands of sailors.
Thus, we have a deadly sanctions war, a hydra-hybrid war launched from all borders of Iran, and this very calm, 1:31 video that is portentous. Iran is demonstrably capable of bringing a behemoth task force to utter ruin and massive deaths. It does not need a vast navy of its own to accomplish this. Iran possesses simple technology and the fierce desire for its own sovereignty and security.
In the fog of war, should there be an attack on Iran, a humble drone might inflict a wound so deep, the Hegemon will not remain in the region.
Asymmetrical warfare has never been so extreme. Even a rock in a sling against a giant brute is far less asymmetric than an armed drone versus a US Naval Task Force.
Iran is a Drone Power. Its capabilities should not be underestimated by its regional enemies.
From 2013-https://dronecenter.bard.edu/irans-drones/
To 2019- https://theiranproject.com/blog/tag/iran-drone-technology/
This can perhaps be interpreted as a symbolic warning to the US not to try anything foolish.
“Thus, we have a deadly sanctions war, a hydra-hybrid war launched from all borders of Iran, and this very calm, 1:31 video that is portentous. Iran is demonstrably capable of bringing a behemoth task force to utter ruin and massive deaths. It does not need a vast navy of its own to accomplish this. Iran possesses simple technology and the fierce desire for its own sovereignty and security.”
What kind of attack can a drone undertake on such a vesse?
This ship truly looks like a death star.
Katherine
Various drones of later development are almost pilotless planes. They carry bombs and missiles.
A carrier deck is festooned with planes, weapons and fuel stocks.
Just damaging the catapult area or cratering the flight deck renders it useless for launching and landing planes.
The chain reaction of explosions once hit by a single bomb or missile is quite predictable.
Look at the disaster caused by John McCain on the flight deck of the USS Forestal. He accidentally fired a rocket that hit a fuel tank of another A-4B fighter plane and the resulting explosions and fires killed 134 and wounded 161. His father, the Admiral, saved his career and the story is now cleansed of any blame attributed to McCain. But the facts known by the survivors will never be buried.
Aircraft lost: seven F-4B Phantom II; eleven A-4E Skyhawks; and three RA-5C Vigilantes; 40 others damaged.
That was without the missile actually exploding. Just a chain event of fuel tanks exploding all over the deck until a bomb actually did explode.
McCain started that fire by causing a “wet start” in his jet which involves flooding his engine with fuel before starting. It’s a dangerous and juvenile stunt that is intended only to cause a plume of flame that flares off. This is why his Daddy’s effort to save him from ruin and the brig was such an accomplishment. Good riddance, McCain.
BS, It was a power surge that caused a missile to be fired when switching from external power unit to on board power. The missiles should not have been plugged in as that usually is done just before being catapulted. I’m no friend of McCain, but it wasn’t his fault nor his aircraft.
LM
Yes… well…who needed enemies when you had incompetent lunatics like McCain on your team.
Talk about a Merchant of Mayhem…this creature caused death and destruction at whatever level he operated on.
Thank god he never became POTUS…just imagine the scale of death that this warmonger would have brought to the table. He would have made Baby Bush look like Florence Nightingale.
Cheers
Col
Katherine, please don’t forget the the carriers themselves are pretty well defended. The Phalanx System. My nasty old musing from the second Gulf war came back. How about 100 or more kg of Uranium 235 enriched to say 60%. released Upwind of one of the 100 000 to US diplomacy. The drone is off course dispensable, nobody would like to handle it after return. I was thinking -musing about a modest load of said isotope to the main Saudi crude oil loading terminal.
I am known a misanthropus.
U235 isn’t really much more dangerous than DU (U238). If it’s enriched from natural uranium, it is only a low-level radioactive source (doesn’t kill you in minutes like a fresh spent fuel rod, but gives you cancer 20 years later). Of course, it is a heavy metal and is poisonous like lead or mercury or thallium. U235 only becomes a problem when you assemble a large enough mass of it together in one place.
The main effect of it would be to set off sensors designed to detect weapons (they’d be tuned to the particular set of energy levels given off by that isotope).
me sense of this issue is that Iran will take out the US navy in the region rather easily..and the US prolly know this is aware of it. so why is the USA dangling its expensive navy in front of Iran while building to hot war?
are they planning to nuke Iran…are those ships bait?
there will be a whole lot of Americans killed on those ships..men and women. would be better if Iran disabled the carriers but I dont know about the support ships. how do you disable those, stop them from letting their missiles go?
however it is my sincere suspicion that that is the american/israeli intent…to nuke Iran off the planet. and the Khazars have planned to get the Americans to do it
How Iran captured a stealth drone from the U.S. and full implications of the loss. Koreans, Chinese and Russians reportedly all benefitted from this.
https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/tehran-s-stealth-drones-full-implications-of-iran-s-acquisition-of-the-u-s-rq-170-in-the-middle-east-and-beyond