March 16, 2026 | 10:53 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A video posted on Facebook [archive] claims that the Iranian military successfully destroyed a U.S. aircraft carrier on March 4, 2026. The footage shows dozens of missiles raining down on the aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean, causing it to burst into flames.
The video shows plumes of black smoke rising high into the sky while several fighter jets parked on the deck are thrown into the sea. The narration in the video states that Washington’s flagship aircraft carrier sank after being struck by Iran’s advanced missiles.
So, is it true that a U.S. aircraft carrier was sunk by Iran's advanced missiles?
FACT CHECK
Tempo verified the content through image analysis and by comparing it with reports from credible sources. The results show that the content was generated by artificial intelligence (AI).
A Veo watermark is visible in the bottom right corner of the video, indicating that it was generated using Google’s Veo AI model.
Google previously launched the Veo 3 model in May 2025, capable of generating both video and audio simultaneously with a simple text prompt.
Analysis using the AI detection tool, Hive Moderation, also showed that about 99.9 percent of the content contained AI-generated elements.
The Facebook account Seputar Bola, which shared the video, has a history of frequently posting fabricated content.
A search on Google also yielded no credible reports confirming that a U.S. aircraft carrier had been sunk by an Iranian missile.
Washington previously denied Tehran’s claim that it had struck the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier with a ballistic missile in the Gulf region on March 1, 2026. “The Lincoln was not hit. The missiles launched didn’t even come close,” wrote U.S. Central Command on X.
However, a different narrative emerged from Tehran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy claimed to have successfully struck the USS Abraham Lincoln using domestically manufactured drones in the Gulf of Oman. This attack was said to have forced the U.S. strike group to retreat from Iran’s maritime zone.
A spokesperson for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters stated on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, that the aircraft carrier was intercepted approximately 340 kilometers from Iran’s maritime border in the Gulf of Oman. The vessel entered the area as part of the U.S. military buildup aimed at pressuring Iran.
Naval Showdown in Hot Waters
The Anadolu news agency reported that the United States has deployed two aircraft carriers in the Middle East. The USS Gerald R. Ford is currently operating in the Red Sea, while the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) is active in the Gulf of Oman.
Tensions in the Middle East have reached a boiling point since last weekend, triggered by the joint U.S. and Israeli aggression against the heart of Iran that killed at least 1,000 people. The attack was confirmed to have also claimed the life of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
CONCLUSION
Tempo’s verification concluded that the video claiming a U.S. aircraft carrier was struck and sunk by Iranian missiles is false.
TEMPO FACT-CHECK TEAM
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