drmeson
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No those higher rank don’t care about IRIAF that’s the real answer.
IRGC has an extreme level of influence over Vezarate Defa. IRIAF has a bare minimum budget. The fleet size, quality, and quantity wise are shrinking with time to the point that pilots now do ~100 hours a year. Most of the topnotch engineers, and technicians left the country so the force is:
- bankrupt
- In the hands of low-quality people who lack vision. Hamid Vahidi himself is an example.
Kowsar took 23 years and production rate is still very small (test bed size)
Kowsar-I will die down at 1-2 squadrons for a very simple reason. HESA wants money and IRIAF has none. A unit costs ~10 million USD and that is just a BVR less Kowsar-I using repository parts of F-5E/F fleet. The armament cost is additional. So for 10 million USD, IRIAF gets a fairly modern but underpowered plane with no BVR at its disposal so it will always be a light CAP at best. IRIAF can afford 60-70 of these but that means the budget for ~50 F-5E/F, 12 MF-1, and 44 x F-7N will have to be cut which is just not possible. The lobby behind F-7N was planning to produce their own rebuilt "Saeghe" of F-7N. Its Sy-80 PD Radar has a range of 30 KM.
btw hypothetically the next generation of Saeghe/Kowsar with a locally produced Turbofan + redesigned airframe + new SAIRAN avionics suite + BVR will be something up to 22-25 Million USD a unit. IRIAF is struggling to pay OWJ for 2-4 million a piece F-14AM upgradations.
Shafaq got canned
... was a University Project of foreign origin. Its foreign designer died, and the professors, and students who worked on it retired/moved on.
Qaher got canned
.. was a pure propoganda stunt by Ahamdinejad Govt.
and Yasin has been in development for years.
... ego project of a lobby that has the highest level of influence over the funding. The plane offers nothing in IRIAF's hands being a AT or a CAS at best. IRIAF needs low RCS, fast climbing interceptors with top-notch Avionics, T-datalink, Nav-Comm, LR-BVR missiles. AT's and CAS are a waste of money.
How can you say that means Upper Leadership prefers domestic?
True answer would be Upper Leadership doesn’t value a strong Air Force.
Have to wait till some of these Iraq war era generals and leaders retire for the fresh young minds to reach leadership positions.
They are caught up in the mentality of controlling skies from the ground through IADS while ever-evolving missiles and drones take the responsibility of attack. This scheme is not necessarily very bad if a token force of some 100-120 x 4+ generation interceptors (SU-35S or MIG-29M/MIG-35) are helping IADS. Akhoond gang is just illiterate and learned nothing from Syria, or Ukraine.