MEI@75:

Between late December and early January, reports surfaced that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) is converting two merchant container ships owned by the sanctioned state shipping line IRISL Group into its first aircraft carriers, called the Shahid Mahdavi and Shahid Bagheri. The Iran Shipbuilding & Offshore Industries Complex Company (ISOICO) at Bandar Abbas near the Strait of Hormuz — the world’s main maritime oil transit chokepoint — is supporting the conversion. The IRGCN has been working on the Shahid Mahdavi since at least May and is expected to complete and commission it in 2023.

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