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It is not difficult for Iran to produce a BVR or WVR missile.

It has the engine tech, it has the seeker tech, and with some clever engineering it can miniaturize to produce a missile to fit most fighters.

The issue like anything is money and willpower.

Between Missile program, drone program, Navy program, Air defense program, nuclear program, plus support for external groups, Syrian war, etc I don’t think there is funds for such a project. I also do not think IRGC which gets the lion share of funds is willing to throw some at IRIAF.

no pantsir for Iran and there is not a single buk in Iran have been spotted

Pantsir is not worth buying, Turkey defeated it. Israel defeated it, and Ukraine defeated it. Iran already building two Pantsir version themselves. It’s just a radar + cannon + short range SAM. Well within Iran’s capabilities at this time.

No need for BUK when it has 3rd Khordad, Tobas, and Raad.
 
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Pantsir is not worth buying, Turkey defeated it. Israel defeated it, and Ukraine defeated it. Iran already building two Pantsir version themselves. It’s just a radar + cannon + short range SAM. Well within Iran’s capabilities at this time.

No need for BUK when it has 3rd Khordad, Tobas, and Raad.
as far as I'm concerned there is no need for s-400 or s-500 or su-35 . i believe i already made myself completely clear on that .
those example was answer to a post that said Iran received them.
and all the post was about i don't trust Russia unless i see the change in behavior
 
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as far as I'm concerned there is no need for s-400 or s-500 or su-35 . i believe i already made myself completely clear on that .

There is always need for game changing defense systems like S-400 or S-500 (I prefer S-500, but even Belarus does not have S-500 yet). You can never have too many air defense systems, ask Ukraine.

Iran’s original order for S-300 was small for a country it’s size going up against militaries with very large air forces (Israel or US) and saturation attack and EW capability.

Bavar after over a decade in development there is no indication that the system has been mass produced in significant numbers. And now they announced a “new” generation

We have seen production line of many 3rd Khordad being built with sensitive components blurred. So this talk of Iran is hiding it due to national security is hogwash. Iran’s weakness is still the production rate of long range SAMs, which I should add many advanced countries struggle to produce enough LR SAMs to fit their needs. These are expensive and complex systems to produce.

Skepticism to Russian overtures to Iran is warranted. I do not disagree.
 
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I can't agree or disagree with that but what I have read is that there were a group of IRIAF officers from the Iraq war who fell in love with F-5E/F because of its performance during the war. It shot down Mig-25RB/PD, MIG-21MF/BIS, and SU-22/20 and just was never shot itself at the BVR range despite the fact there were a number of reports of MIG-25PD or MIG-23ML shooting their R-40, R-23 BVR missiles at it but none hit because of low RCS airframe. Its driven F/A-18 and F-18EF are documented by the US navy to have 1-2 m^2 RCS. It also took part in bombing or diversion-causing invasions into enemy territory such as during the attack on H-3 and was again never easy to catch. As underpowered it is, it can reach 0.9 Mach at low levels without afterburners.

So when these pilots and battle planners gained bigger ranks laterwards in IRIAF they started focusing on domestic production of a local F-5E/F variant. One of these guys was Mansour Sattari who was the IRIAF Commander in mid 1990s. His plan was to follow the Shahi era blue prints of F/A-18 domestic production and develop a local fighter having an airframe of F-5E/F with RD-33 turbofan with N019 radar with R-27/R-73 package. He died on duty and Russia backed out of MIG-29+MIG-31 deals with IRIAF which were signed by Rafsanjani and Yeltsin.
So the project went to CATIC of China under the title "Silk Route II" in which the avionics package of the most modern J7E were to be installed on F-5E/F with some 30-40 % locally built airframe. That plane became Azarakhsh (the green one) with stupid Sy-80 radar and PL-7C missiles. IRIAF was not happy with it at all because they abhorred F-7 already. So it never went into production.

The next plan was to make the plane even more modernized with a Western-origin avionics package. At that time Chinese NRIET which is part of CATIC China somehow started copying LEONARDO GRIFO radars of Italian origin. Some people including me believe that Italians sold their designs to CATIC for hefty prices because they would not want to sell anything to rogue nations directly. Grifo-S7 became NRIET KLJ-7 (FC-1/JF-17), Grifo-E became KLJ-7A AESA (J-31) and GRIFO-346 became SAIRAN (Iran) Bayyenat-II on Kowsar-I (Chinese designation is KLJ-6F probably???). The design is exact replica including the number and layout of T/R modules. It's quite a modern system with a Detection/Track range of 120/94 KM for 1m2 RCS target. It has look down shoot down capability and SAR of 1m2 (better than SU-35S's IRBIS), and has an internal ECM package. It's currently being used by M-346 and at one point was even considered for YAK-131. Technically it can track even a F-18EF at around 100 KM and fire a salvo of R-77AE/PL-12/PL-15 at it.

Because of sanctions on Iran during Ahmadinejad era, Chinese left and HESA was contracted by IRIAF to carry on the Silk Route II Project. They made some radical changes to the design such as the plan changed to the point that F-5E/F basic airframe will be modified with twin stabilizers and the airintakes will be squared up to gain high AOA and they will be under the wings and locally produced OWJ turbojets will be installed on the plane. According to the extremely detailed work published in key.aero every prototype had an increasing % of locally built airframes like Saeghe-II in 2015 was upto 70 % locally built.

The plan failed because (A) IRIAF had no money to supply to HESA for further work (B) The OWJ Turbojets were not powerful enough to extract fast pitch/yaw/roll for which the airframe was modified. Russia only supplied ~50 RD-33 in early 2000s which went to MIG-29 9.12 fleet despite the fact that order was for 250 RD-33 to be used on Shafagh and Saeghe-I/II. So Saegheh-I/II project got bundled up in 2016-2017 but somehow through lobbyism it was "inducted" into service at Tabriz TAB-2. HESA moved to Kowsar-I which is a mixture of few 100% locally built airframes while others use some % of local parts. According to BT the plane that was shown during its unveiling was almost 100% domestically built, was a bit larger the F-5F, it had a totally different internal structural layout (can be seen) to accommodate heavy avionics equipment. It has a modern radar (mentioned above)+ECM, Double Duplex Datalink to send and receive track-info with UCAVs/GWACS/other fighters which was confirmed by HESA-head himself. The avionics architecture consists of 4 x system computers for Weapons, Mission, and Flight management, and there is also a Ballistic Computer similar to SU-24/34 SVP-24 for precision ground strikes. Something surprising was the use of local FBW for the actuation of control surfaces. The plane turned to be quite modern for Iranian capabilities but its underpowered. You can not take on an EF-2000 or Rafale while climbing at 34000 ft/min. F-5E/F can almost supercruise on J-85II/OWJ and reach 0.9Mach without burners so at low speed or altitude the turbojets can do fine but to defend airspace against invasion you need fast climb and high acceleration which can only come from a AL-31F like a monster. Also it has no BVR missile to use. It can technically easily integrate PL-12/15 or R-77AE but they have not landed in Iran yet. Dowran F-4E/D's were supposed to recieve PL-12 but we have never seen them in pics so no evidence exists while as long as SU-35S does not land in Iran R-77AE is beyond Iranian reach as well.


Kowsar-page-0002.jpg
Sir

I have followed your posts with interest.

In this instance I regard this as a welcome back.

You have in particular posted two items regarding Kowsar an the F-14.

Insightful.

I have completed a paper that I regard as the IRIAFs' future bread and butter combat a/c paper.

I have tried to hock this paper where I thought it may find traction. Alas, not even one hit (sigh...).

Nevertheless, by this time tomorrow I would have uploaded the latest updated iteration of the same to my drop box. Address to be posted.

Pse note, image heavy. Best viewed in Word.

Piet



































Qaher is a different story altogether and I have no doubt left that it will become a UCAV in near future. Its easy to do actually with a Tolue-14 or Jahesh-700 turbofan and tons of experiences gained through Saegheh Flying wing mass production.



Why would Iran need IRIAF to deliver AShCM when they can hit a carrier at 700 KM with Zolfaghar Basir AShBM which comes down dancing with separating MaRV from the depressed trajectory or IRGC-N can deliver Salvos of Mehdi Cruise-M from 1000+ KM? Let along anything a swarm of Shahed-136 can ruin the superstructure of a ship including radar.



R-73 cant take track-info from AWG-9 so without that, and using its own seeker for tracking the target the range fo R-73 is barely 15 KM. It becomes useless for F-14A/AM.

According to BT, Babaei Missile Industries (which developed Fakour-90 LRBVR) is producing a coupled cluster imaging, All Aspect WVR missile called "Azarakhsh-I" with 40 KM range (if it takes track info from radar). We have actually seen it with 4 gimbaled motors controlling four fins separately like AIM-9X. That is for Kowsar-I/II, Yasin-Attack version, F-14AM.





F-7 is alive because of a lobby called "Erfanians" otherwise it serves no purpose in IRIAF. It lacks BVR, lacks look down shoot down, lacks ECM, it lacks everything. Mirages have no radars or even pylons. Its lobby is alive from Naghdi-beks time whose sole purpose is to somehow keep it in the fleet without weapons. IRIAF should park it in Kish and use it as a tourism jet to make money because it has no other purpose. F-5E/F is flying with APG-153 with a 36KM track range for 5 m2 target.

These three circus clown jets are a waste of money that should go to Kowsar-II production and expanding the SU-35S fleet beyond even 64. IRIAF needs nothing but SU-35S+ Kowsar-II, Karrar/Qaher based unmanned wingmen and IADS-slaved AWACS. The rest of the fleet except F-14AM does nothing for Iran. MIG-29 9.12 fleet is flying with MIG-23ML's radar and avionics package which can barely track a target of Kowsar size at 55 KM and lacks RWR. It also has no ARH BVR. Although BT is saying that MIG-29 fleet is undergoing a Billion USD MIG-29SMT level upgrade.
 
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Article about Army day in Iran from the current issue of Air Forces monthly, paragraph about the current status of IRIAF F-14 fleet and future, Babak Taghvaee is the author, so credibility is suss
 

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Article about Army day in Iran from the current issue of Air Forces monthly, paragraph about the current status of IRIAF F-14 fleet and future, Babak Taghvaee is the author, so credibility is suss

Unlikely Iran would retire F-14 this early.

Probably by 2035-2040 they will be mothballed never fully retired. If war breaks out they will need them to be put back into action.
 
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Unlikely Iran would retire F-14 this early.

Probably by 2035-2040 they will be mothballed never fully retired. If war breaks out they will need them to be put back into action.
My thoughts also, the Tomcat is indispensable.
 
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My thoughts also, the Tomcat is indispensable.
only 2 thing made them indispensable , lack of missile like AIM-120 and lack of AWACS .
F-14 will remain in service no matter how much IRIAF has to spend to make them airworthy as long as those two deficiency don't get answered .
 
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Sir

I have followed your posts with interest.

In this instance I regard this as a welcome back.

You have in particular posted two items regarding Kowsar an the F-14.

Insightful.

I have completed a paper that I regard as the IRIAFs' future bread and butter combat a/c paper.

I have tried to hock this paper where I thought it may find traction. Alas, not even one hit (sigh...).

Nevertheless, by this time tomorrow I would have uploaded the latest updated iteration of the same to my drop box. Address to be posted.

Pse note, image heavy. Best viewed in Word.

Piet
Do you have a link to the older paper you wrote? Thanks.
 
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Article about Army day in Iran from the current issue of Air Forces monthly, paragraph about the current status of IRIAF F-14 fleet and future, Babak Taghvaee is the author, so credibility is suss
Which issue is that, is it 06/2023 or another one? Yeah even i, a russian aircraft fanboy, think retiring F-14s even if Su-35 arrives is beyond dumb. 24 Su-35 is a too small number anyway. Only if somehow they get to replace on a one for one basis the F-14, F-4, F-5 etc. (so that is roughly 60 airframes each, 180 in total) with modern russian or chinese aircraft be it Su-35, Su-30, J-10, FC-1, J-31 etc. then retiring them would be justified, but even then what i would do is select the best 30-36 airframes of each, used the rest for spares, either keep them in IRIAF or give them to IRGC and upgrade them as fighter-bombers with all kinds of guided munitions, anti-ship and cruise missiles, even getting the F-14 armed with hypersonics like i suggested elsewhere.
 
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Do you have a link to the older paper you wrote? Thanks.

Sure

The first time that I uploaded this paper must have been last year some time, to secretprojects.co.uk.

Since then it has gone through various iterations as additional nuggets emerged.

The last one I posted to my drop-box was on 3/5/2023.
 
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Which issue is that, is it 06/2023 or another one? Yeah even i, a russian aircraft fanboy, think retiring F-14s even if Su-35 arrives is beyond dumb. 24 Su-35 is a too small number anyway. Only if somehow they get to replace on a one for one basis the F-14, F-4, F-5 etc. (so that is roughly 60 airframes each, 180 in total) with modern russian or chinese aircraft be it Su-35, Su-30, J-10, FC-1, J-31 etc. then retiring them would be justified, but even then what i would do is select the best 30-36 airframes of each, used the rest for spares, either keep then in IRIAF or give them to IRGC and upgrade them as fighter-bombers with all kinds of guided munitions, anti-ship and cruise missiles, even getting to F-14 armed with hypersonics like i suggested elsewhere.
June Issue
 
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