there is small problem of we had more money at our disposal at the time.and the small problem of 30 year between then and now
mig-29 9.13 was a good airplane at the time . but now ? rather go and by a license for jf-17 from china
right now we are cash strapped , its development an airplane or buying those old mig-29.
considering how much money we can spend there , its either buy foreign airplane and kill domestic airplane program or go on with our own airplane and inject the money they want to spend on foreign aircraft to that program
Correction, IRIAF is cash strapped, not the Iranian defense industry in general. Our entire defense budget of 25 Bln USD (SIPRI figures) goes to domestic production and maintenance. We also are fighting active wars let's not forget. We have to keep on expanding the missile forces, nuclear program, space program, naval production, UCAVs, armor, Air defense, E-warfare etc etc and IRIAF is at the bottom of that priority list because of the military doctrine.
What you are forgetting is that MIG-29 9.12/9.13 or MIG-29M/M2, MIG-35 are excellent fighters in terms of their physical performance, they cant be dealt with in dogfights easily even by 5th generation aircraft. Only a fool would think that within WVR, an F-35 can just go on and score a kill on HMD wearing MIG-92SMT or Mig-35 easily. You have a fighter that can hit the linear dash at supersonic speeds, climb vertically at transonic speeds (65000ft/min), pull 9+ G's in small turns to get into attack positions while carrying HMD slaved HOBS like R-73/74 and IRST. MIG-29/35 are monsters in dogfights ..... BUT
..... Ours are 9.12 with no e-warfare suites or HMD or anything. They would be massacred in the sky by a fully armed Kowsar-I let alone any future generation Kowsar-II. Just with its low RCS and Grifo-346/Bayyenat-II the Kowsar with 1m2 RCS will hardly be seen by MIG while MIG's own RPKL-29 will be facing a heavy jamming attack by SAIRAN E-Warfare suite in Kowsar. Kowsar with its datalink can also direct Kaman-22/Karrar carrying DASH ECM pods towards MIG to Jam the relic RPKL-29 Sapfir 29 N019. This is what the reality of this old fleet is. So what do we do with this fleet of 23 x MIGs that badly need MLU and upgrades? There are options:
(a) We retire them in the next 5 years when their beat-up airframes and turbofans would just be giving up already but that means all of the following will go to waste:
- Large infrastructure made for MIG fleet at Mehrabad and Shahinshahr
- 150 R-27ER/R1BVR missiles
- 300 R-73E
- 400 R-60MK WVR missiles
- 106 RD-33 turbofans (56 with aircraft + 50 later received in 2008)
(b) HESA-led MLU program starts up for the airframes of MIGs, and RD-33 turbofans while IEI can provide the Kowsar level avionics package of Datalinks, ECM+Jammer+RWR+IFF, HMD slaved HOBS. Keep the RPKL-29 to guide R-73E, R-27ER/R1.
(c) Russian front companies provide the MLU, full avionics upgrade to MIG-29M/SMT standards, and supply additional airframes (as many as they can from Russian storage, ~50?) at least. This option is actually easier than procurement of SU-35S, J-31whatever.
considering how much money we can spend there , its either buy foreign airplane and kill domestic airplane program or go on with our own airplane and inject the money they want to spend on foreign aircraft to that program
The best way to go will be to focus 50% budget on Kowsar-I production (10-12 airframes per year), if the target is 70 aircraft and we already have seen 18-24 airframes at HESA floors, this means 35-40 % of the entire production target is already being worked upon. Kowsar-I will be concluded in 2026 by this speed. The rest of the 25% budget can go to extensive R&D for Kowsar-II (low all aspect RCS, AESA, HOTAS, Jahesh/OWJ Turbofans etc), the rest of 25 % should for F-14 AM conversions, Maghsoud LR-BVR, and MIG-29 MLU. The rest of the 160 Fuckers (F-7N, MIRAGEF1EQ, F-5E/F) can be grounded or donated to allied countries like Syria, Iraq etc. F-5E/F can be dismantled to create a repository of useable parts for Kowsar-I's.
I am not in favor of foreign procurement. We have Kowsar-I being produced, Kowsar-II is the way to go. Unless the procurement fits like a glove in the current infrastructure which is only possible if its more MIG-29/35 other than that no.