Iran blows up replica US warship in military drill

Iran's Revolutionary Guard has launched a spectacular speedboat attack on a replica US aircraft carrier in the Gulf.

Footage showed Iran's gunboats swarm the giant model ship from all directions near the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for seaborne-traded oil, before blasting it with cruise and ballistic missiles.

The aim of the drill, which was part of military war games, was to rehearse how to sink an American carrier, at least two of which patrol the Gulf at any given time, NBC News reports.

Admiral Ali Fadavi, the naval commander of the Revolutionary Guard, told state television that American carriers are "very big ammunition depots housing a lot of missiles, rockets, torpedoes" so that hitting a ship with just one missile could trigger a "large secondary explosion".

But US forces claimed they had little to fear from the Revolutionary Guard, saying that each of its carriers could embark about 80 aircraft with more strike power than the entire Iranian air force.

Commander Kevin Stephens, a spokesman for the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, which is based in the nearby kingdom of Bahrain, told Associated Press: "It seems they've attempted to destroy the equivalent of a Hollywood movie set."