© AFP / US NavyFILE PHOTO: USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier
The undated clip, which was released by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, showed a homemade Ababail-3 drone taking off from an Iranian airfield with the musical accompaniment of a rather epic tune.
Its audacious mission proved successful, according to Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency, which reported on the close-up shots of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier apparently taken by the UAV.
The footage was recorded from such a small distance that the numbers on the wings of E-2C reconnaissance planes and F-18 fighter jets on deck are easily distinguishable. Iranian graphic designers even captioned some of the aircraft in the video.
Tasnim hinted that the drone flyby was a response to the US designating the Revolutionary Guard a "terrorist organization" earlier in April. It was the first time that a whole foreign military was put on the blacklist by Washington.
USS 'Dwight D. Eisenhower' is the flagship of the Carrier Strike Group 10, which also includes guided-missile cruisers USS Monterey, USS San Jacinto and USS Vella Gulf. The air wing of the 333-meter-long aircraft carrier consists of around 90 planes and helicopters.
Comment: After successfully reverse engineering a US spy drone, and more recently hacking a US drone, evidently Iran is taking advantage of its newfound knowledge. So much so that at each stage they've been eager to share it with the world, or, more particularly, the US: