Военное обозрение By Top War
Yes, thanks to our readers for paying attention to our partner Iran. And there in the media there are very lively discussions on the topic of supplies from Russia. A news portal (TABNAK, Atlaskhabar, Shahrekhabar) very sublimely called the “Day of Dawn” the next arrival of the An-124 aircraft belonging to the Russian Aerospace Forces at Merkhabad airport, one of the two airports in Tehran.
The specifications of the cargo have not been disclosed, but the militaristic part of the Iranian audience (and in fact, few people there claim to be compared with the dove bird of peace) expresses great hope that the Russian giant’s hold contains vehicle kits for Su-35 fighters.
At one time, the Iranian Ministry of Defense informed the country’s citizens that the first of 67 ordered Russian aircraft would soon begin to arrive. The reaction was more than warm, especially on resources where an audience similar to ours gathers. Especially among fans aviation. And when the first ones arrived under their own power…
Here you just need to understand what the Iranian Air Force is. In one word, everything is very bad.
The last arrival of aircraft to the Iranian Air Force occurred 33 years ago, when Iraqi Air Force aircraft flew into the country, which the pilots wanted to save from destruction by coalition forces during Operation Desert Storm. Thus, the Iranian Air Force was replenished with MiG-29 (36 units), Su-25 (10 units), Su-24 (24 units), Dassault Mirage F1 (10 units). Today, the value of these aircraft, which were previously operated by the Iraqi Air Force, is more than doubtful due to their age and resource consumption.
The main backbone of the Iranian Air Force is the F-14 Tomcat, produced in the 70s of the last century. The planes are very good for their time, but just as old as the Iraqi ones. We will not talk about the value of the F-4 Phantom II (the most recent one was released in 1981) and the F-5 Tiger II (the most recent one was produced in 1986), since we all understand perfectly well: the Iranian Air Force is far from the best air force, not to mention world, in the region.
The Iranian military, while the country was isolated, did not give up trying to create their own aircraft. However, developing an airplane is much more difficult than a ballistic missile, and while the Iranians frankly succeeded in the latter, they absolutely failed with airplanes.
First HESA “Azarakhsh” was built, then HESA “Shafaq”. Both aircraft were the fruits of reverse engineering of the American F-5 aircraft and were manufactured in small series of less than 10 units. The last bitter experience of HESA “Kowsar” was so unsuccessful that the car did not even go into small production…
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE… (en.topwar.ru)
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