Sina-1
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My emphasis on the roots of Iranian military tech was to demonstrate that catching up to the rest of the world in military tech is not easy nor quick. Yes, Iran should work on its domestic arms industry. But that doesn't mean abstaining from purchasing foreign arms.
Amir jan, I am fan of your twitter and blog and as a fellow Iranian thankful for the time you put on those platforms in order to inform and educate.
Having said that, I categorically disagree with you when it comes to procurement of expensive military hardware such as fighter jets or the likes of tanks, submarines, AD systems and such. Even though the later ones mentioned are not up to discussion, I wanted to make it clear that I am not only against procurement of fighter jets, rather all expensive hardware.
So I disagree with you on three accords. By buying these systems:
1. we will lose incentive to develop our own hardware. Hence, simply saying that we should buy and at the same time develop our own is in reality a toothless approach, because the stress and incentive fades and the sense of emergency is instead replaced with a sense of false security. This is the foremost silent killer of all incentives and domestic projects.
2. we loose budget for our development of our own industry.
3. we strengthen the negative image of ourselves being a client state and of inferior capability. This point is maybe the most important in my opinion because it will affect the young generation and thus in affect for decades.
Also you need to separate (real) engineering with reverse-engineering (copy engineering). Your example with the missiles taking decades to develop is a case of reverse engineering done by a work force not being expert engineers to begin with. A nation that conducts real engineering is able to utilise mathematical, physics, chemical, electric, electronic etc knowledge to develop a product which satisfies a very specific set of requirements. As an example Space X fielded the falcon rocket within 5 years (!!!), difference being foremost because real engineering being utilised.
Although Iran started its journey as a clear copy engineering nation, I would argue that today Iran has in many cases shown true signs of real engineering. The Air defence systems and new generation of precision missiles are a testament of this theory.
We can see the exact same development in the private sector such as with MAPNAs new gas turbine which is completely unique in its design. What does this show? It is a clear indicator that Iranian engineers do not need a corresponding foreign system to copy anymore. They are confident in their own product development process.
So if we could trust in Tehrani Moghaddam to kickstart our missile program from absolutely zero knowledge base with minimal resources, how can we turn our back to our current capabilities when it comes to satisfying the military needs in regards to airspace patrol and power projection?