Defense Industry
In 1963 Iran placed all military factories under the Military Industries Organization (MIO) of the Ministry of War. Over the next fifteen years, military plants produced small arms ammunition, batteries, tires, copper products, explosives, and mortar rounds and fuses. They also produced rifles and machine guns under West German license. In addition, helicopters, jeeps, trucks, and trailers were assembled from imported kits. Iran was on its way to manufacturing rocket launchers, rockets, gun barrels, and grenades, when the Revolution halted all military activities. The MIO, plagued by the upheavals of the time, was unable to operate without foreign specialists and technicians; by 1981 it had lost much of its management ability and control over its industrial facilities.
The outbreak of hostilities with Iraq and the Western arms embargo served as catalysts for reorganizing, reinvigorating, and expanding defense industries. In late 1981, the revolutionary government brought together the country's military industrial units and placed them under the Defense Industries Organization (DIO), which would supervise production activities. In 1987 the DIO was governed by a mixed civilian-military board of directors and a managing director responsible for the actual management and planning activities. Although the DIO director was accountable to the deputy minister of defense for logistics, Iran's president, in his capacity as the chairman of the SDC, had ultimate responsibility for all DIO operations.
By 1986 a large number of infantry rifles, machine guns, and mortars and some small-arms ammunition were being manufactured locally. On several occasions, clerics delivering their Friday sermons in Tehran claimed that Iran was engaged in a full-scale military production program, and the Iranian press regularly reported the successful production of new items ranging from washers to helicopter fuselage parts. For example, the professional military displayed, at the Permanent Industrial Exhibition in Tehran, a collection of hermetic sealing cylinders for Chieftain tanks and artillery flame-deflectors with artillery pads. They also displayed Katyusha gauges, personnel carrier shafts, gears, gun pulleys, carriages for 50mm caliber guns, 155mm shells, bases for night-vision telescopic rifles, parts for G-3 rifles, various firing pins, and flash suppressors for 130mm guns.
In 1987 the military took pride in being able to repair various transmitters, receivers, and helicopter engines. A number of unverified reports also alluded to the repair of the testing equipment of F-14 hydraulic pressure transmitters and generators. Similarly, Iran claimed to have manufactured an undisclosed number of Oghab rockets, probably patterned on the Soviet-made Scud-B surface-to-surface missiles the Iranians received from Libya. In mid-1984 the navy claimed to have successfully repaired the gas turbines of several vessels in Bandar-e Abbas. Moreover, Pasdaran units reportedly repaired Soviet- and Polish-made T-54, T-55, T-62, and T-72 tanks, captured from the Iraqis in 1982, at their armor repair center.
The monopoly of the regular armed forces over domestic arms production and repair industries ended in 1983 when the SDC authorized the Pasdaran to establish its own military industries. This new policy was in line with the Pasdaran's growing political and military weight. Beginning in 1984, the first Pasdaran armaments factory manufactured 120mm mortars, antipersonnel grenades, various antichemical-warfare equipment, antitank rockets, and rocket-propelled grenades.
In April 1997 Acting Commander of the Ground Forces of the Iranian Army, Lieutenant General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani announced that the design and construction of helicopters has started and will bear results in the ground forces five-year plan. General Ashtiani also claimed that 14,000 various kinds of aircraft parts have been produced by the forces, with some of the parts manufactured at costs one thousandths of similar foreign made parts. He stated that Iran had saved the equivalent of 30 billion rials in hard currency. In the Iranian budget year which started on 21 March 1997, he disclosed that the aviation wing of the army intended to produce 90 percent of its spare parts requirement.
A sector rapidly drawing attention has been Iran's burgeoning aviation industry. As evidenced by the inaugural flight of Iran's indigenously designed and manufactured Azarakhsh fighter jet to the mass production launch of small turboprops and passenger planes, this sector is making rapid strides. Part of the impetus for the development of this industry lies within domestic demand factors. Currently, it is estimated that over 10% of total demand for passenger planes in the Asian-Pacific market is in Iran, as domestic passenger traffic is expected to top eleven million passengers by the year 2000. This massive demand has also spurred private sector investment in this sector as evidenced by the establishment of 17 private airlines in the past five years which now control over 25% of market share.
These joint technology projects are supplemented by such projects as the indigenously designed and manufactured Shabaviz helicopter manufactured by Iran Helicopter Support and Renewal Industries (IHSRI) and the S-68 turboprop trainer manufactured by Iran Aircraft Industries. Iran Helicopter Support & Renewal Company in Tehran is a producer of the helicopter's body and maintenance of helicopters according to American standards. However, the achievements of Iran's aviation industry has not only been limited to the manufacture of planes. Iran Air has successfully completely overhauled a number of planes in its fleet, without any foreign assistance as have other local companies such as Aseman.
On July 10, 2003, ICE agents executed search warrants on 18 U.S. companies in 10 states suspected of exporting military components to Multicore, Ltd., a front company in London that was involved in clandestinely procuring weapons systems worldwide for the Iranian military. Among the items allegedly exported by these U.S. companies to Multicore were components for HAWK missiles, F-14 fighter jets, F-5 fighter jets, F-4 fighter jets, C-130 military aircraft, military radars, and other equipment. On Sept. 24, 2003, ICE agents in Miami announced the arrest of Serzhik Avassapian, a 40-year-old Iranian national, on charges of attempting to illegally export roughly $750,000 worth of U.S. F-14 fighter jet components to the Iranian government. During the undercover ICE investigation, there was also discussion of illegal exports of helicopters and C-130A electrical and avionic upgrades to Iran.
