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Iran Air Force pushing for enhancement, modernization

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

May 4, 2023

Tehran, IRNA -- The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) continues to leap forward with the latest reports indicating that it plans to display new achievements in the coming days.

The new capabilities will be in the field of both manned and unmanned aircraft, according to the IRIAF's Commander Brigadier General Hamid Vahedi.

"... the air force is growing (in power) and as I have stated before we must never stop for a moment because if we do, we will fall behind," Vahedi said in an interview with Mehr News agency.

Despite the fact that Iran has one of the lowest military budgets in the West Asia region, the circumstances have not prevented the country from enhancing its defensive powers as it has faced constant threats by the US and the Zionist regime in addition to severe and inhumane economic sanctions over the past decades.

The IRIAF is slated to take delivery of the first batch of the state-of-the-art Sukhoi Su-35 heavy air superiority fighter jets in the coming weeks.

The last time the force received advanced fighters of the similar class was in the mid-1970s, when the Grumman F-14A Tomcat fighter aircraft arrived in Iran.

Unlike the F-14A model which had very limited air-to-ground and air-to-sea capabilities and a pair of troublesome engines, the Su-35 is a fighter that excels in all types of missions.

Like its counterpart, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Aerospace Force (IRGCAF), the IRIAF has begun transitioning to modern warfare in the recent years by acquiring new armaments such as Kaman-22 and Kaman-12 unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), Yasin precision-guided glide bomb, Qader anti-ship missiles (AShM), Shahin jamming, self-protection pod, and the recently unveiled Asef land-attack cruise missile with an expected range of 2,000 km.

Furthermore, the IRIAF has also taken concrete steps to enhance survivability and second-strike capability by adopting passive defense strategies in form of building sophisticated, self-sustaining underground bases such as Oghab-44 strategic airbase.

In the field of manned aerial platforms, Iran has steadily worked on a decades-long project to domestically develop a light weight fighter jet using combat-proven designs such as that of Northrop F-5, as a starting block, a path often taken by other key powers such as India and China which helps by vastly lowering the needed resources.

Iran's efforts have so far culminated in the introduction of Kowsar fourth-generation fighter jet, Yasin training jet, as well as the Simourgh light transport aircraft.

In addition to safeguarding the skies over the critical Persian Gulf region, the IRIAF has also played a pivotal role in defeating the US-sponsored terror groups such as the ISIS and carrying large volume of humanitarian aids to Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan in the past few years.

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