Saeqeh / Saeqeh-80
There were reports in the late 1990s of the development of an indigenous fighter design called the Owj (Zenith), although this could have reflected a nomenclature confusion with the IRIAF Owj Industrial Complex. This name was not applied to a publically displayed aircraft type as of 2008.
In December 1998 Chancellor of Martyr Sattari University, Brigadier General Ali-Akbar Showqi told the President Mohammad Khatami that the fighter Saeqeh (also written Sa'eqeh and Saeqheh, and alternately translated as Lightning or Thunderbolt), then in the design phase, would do its experimental flight in the year 2001. In July 2004 Iran showed a video and pictures of the latest prototype fighter jet, called Saeqeh, or Saeqeh-80 (after the Islamic year 1380).
The aircraft resembled an F-5E Tiger II with a pair of canted vertical stabilizers, resembling those of the American F/A-18. The similarities were reinforced by the announcement that this new aicraft was a follow on to the Azarakhsh (Thunder) aircraft, which also bore significant similarities to the F-5E.
On 6 August 2007 the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) had reported Ministry of Defense Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar as saying that successful test of the Azarakhsh would lead to plans for "manufacturing of the fifth generation of Iranian aircraft." Army and Defense Ministry experts were currently working on the second type of Azarakhsh fighters, to be called Saeqeh, which would be also tested in the near future, Mohammad-Najjar added.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for the armed forces to be boosted, as the Islamic republic unveiled the locally developed fighter jet. During his tour of the western city of Hamedan, Khamenei was shown the Saeqeh. The jet had been shown on state television making a test flight. No information about its operational capacity, technical specifications or production were given. In his address to a group of pilots and air force commanders, at the third air force base in Hamedan, Ayatollah Khamenei hailed the key role of the air force. The Supreme Leader said successful manufacture of the Saeqeh jet fighter by the Islamic Republic Iran's Air Aorce and elevation of their combat readiness were the results of their faith, hard endeavors and strong will. The Saeqeh jet fighter made a successful test flight in the presence of the Supreme Leader during the ceremony.
