Location
Eastern strait approach
Mosquito Fleet · Mission 10 · Eastern strait approach
OPERATIONAL ORDER 2027-01-09-LRK-061 Eyes only. Captain R. Tahami, Boghammar-7. USS GERALD R. FORD (CVN-78) transiting east-to-west, eastern strait approach, with full strike group escort: two DDGs (USS Ross, USS Mahan), one cruiser (USS San Jacinto), two attack subs (off-screen). Observation only. CLOSER APPROACH = HIGHER VALUE. Any weapon discharge is a mission abort and a guaranteed international incident. You are looking. Nothing else. — Cmdr. M. Alavi, Larak Naval Station
Cockpit and net traffic recorded during the operation, timestamped from mission start.
United States Navy aircraft carriers transit the Strait of Hormuz regularly to support Fifth Fleet operations headquartered in Bahrain, and each transit is a carefully watched event. A Nimitz- or Ford-class carrier and its strike group represent the most concentrated conventional firepower afloat, and passing them through a channel only a few miles wide, flanked by Iranian territory and IRGCN boat bases, is at once deliberately routine and deliberately provocative.
The years since 2016 have produced a steady stream of close-encounter incidents — Iranian fast boats approaching US warships at speed, aircraft and drones overflying formations, and radio challenges exchanged at the edge of engagement range. Most end without shots fired, governed by unwritten rules both sides understand. But the proximity is real: carrier aviators launch and recover within minutes of Iranian airspace, and a single misjudged approach could turn a transit into a war. The carrier is simultaneously America's clearest statement of presence in the Gulf and its most exposed target there.
A scene from the campaign's narrative, shown after a successful run. Mild spoilers.
The dock at 0530. The eastern sky is the color of cold tea. Reza has been awake for twenty hours. He has not been spoken to by anyone for the last two of them.
Yusef is on the foredeck of Boghammar-7. He has a coil of line he is not coiling.
"They are very large," Yusef says.
"Yes."
"My father saw the Enterprise once. He said the same thing."
Reza waits.
"It is good to be reminded, sometimes," Yusef says, "that we are not the largest navy in the strait."
He sits down on the foredeck. He lets the line lie loose across his knees.
"It's an old joke. The Persian navy is the strait. The American navy is the carrier. Whoever leaves first is the one who was passing through."
He looks east, where the *Ford*'s wake is still flat enough to read.
"They will leave eventually," Yusef says. "They always do. The strait stays."
Reza nods.
"And tonight," Yusef says, "we did not give them an excuse."
He pulls his cigarette from behind his ear. He looks at it for a moment. He puts it in his pocket instead of behind his ear, for the first time Reza has ever seen.
"Get some sleep, Captain."