IRAN Watch, News, infos and updates

Tehran on 11 August announced that it had tested an upgraded version of its Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile. The test came just two weeks after Israel's Arrow anti-missile system - designed to negate the Shahab threat - shot down an actual 'Scud' missile for the first time in an exercise meant to validate its growing capabilities.

While senior Iranian defence officials said the Shahab field exercise - it was not an actual flight test - was meant to assess the performance of new components that engineers have integrated into the missile, they acknowledged that its timing was no accident.

"The Israelis are trying hard to improve the [capability] of their [Arrow] missiles and we are also trying to improve the Shahab-3 in a short time," said Iranian Defence Minister Rear Adm Ali Shamkhani on 7 August while disclosing the pending test. The improvements to the missile "not only concern its range, but other specifications as well", he noted.

Regional intelligence sources told JDW that these enhancements include guidance equipment of Chinese origin to improve the missile's accuracy. US intelligence sources could not confirm this claim as JDW went to press.

The baseline Shahab-3 is believed to have a range approaching 1,300km - enough to strike Israel. There is no information that the improvements include penetration aids that could help the missile evade the Arrow's interceptors.

The sequence of Arrow-Shahab testing comes amid the backdrop of the continuing crisis over Iran's alleged clandestine nuclear weapon programme. Iran has said it would strike at Israel with its ballistic missiles if Israel attacks its nuclear facilities.

link

Scenario:

Israel bombs into rubble Iran's nuclear facility

Iran retaliates by launching Shahab-3 missiles

Israeli Arrow missiles intercept Shahab missiles but only 50% success rate

Many Israeli facilities destroyed and civilians killed

Israel ups the ante by bombing Iranian military bases and missile launch facilities

What will happen next?

Iran strikes back with their F-14s and F-5s (??) but all are shot down

Tensions escalate --

Iran is threatening to strike Israel's nuke facilities:

Full story

Israel's enemies are no longer as helpless as before.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L08175848.htm

TEHRAN, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Iran threatened on Monday to strike back at Israel or any other country that attacked its nuclear facilities.

U.S. and Israeli officials accuse Iran of seeking to develop atomic bombs under cover of a civilian nuclear programme. Iran denies the charges saying it only intends to produce electricity from nuclear power plants.

"If Israel or any other country attacks any site in Iran, we know no limits to threaten their interests," Deputy Revolutionary Guards Commander Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr said.

"That means anywhere in the world, within their borders or outside it," he told reporters on Monday on the sidelines of an anti-U.S. conference in Tehran.

Israeli warplanes successfully destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981. Iran has stationed anti-aircraft batteries around its nuclear plants and built many of its facilities underground.

Iranian officials have also warned they can strike back at Israel with its medium-range Shahab-3 missile, which can also hit U.S. military bases in the Gulf.

Zolqadr denied Iran was developing nuclear weapons, saying the Islamic state preferred to rely on a volunteer militia force, which he said numbered 10 million, to defend the country.

Earlier the commander addressed high-school students at a conference entitled "The World Without America".

British dossier argues against a military strike on Iran

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has drawn up a report stating Britain's case against a military strike on Iran.

According to media reports, in his 200 page dossier Straw argues against an attack on Iran amidst rising fears that President Bush may seek support for this new conflict.

In his report, Straw argues for a "negotiated solution" rather than a military one to halt Iran's suspected ambitions to produce nuclear weapons. Straw believes that "a peaceful solution led by Britain, France and Germany is in the best interests of Iran and the international community," at the same stating the European countries intentions in "safeguarding Iran's right to the peaceful use of nuclear technology."

Reportedly, the dossier entitled Iran's Nuclear Programme, was quietly issued in the House of Commons on the eve of Bush's inauguration last week for fear of provoking a public rift with Washington.

Furthermore, it appears that relations between the two allies are not as rosy as previously perceived, with tensions running high between them.

The Iran report marks a sharp shift in strategy by the Labour government which in the run-up to the war in Iraq had produced two dossiers trumpeting the case to join the U.S. led invasion.

As further proof of their lack of desire in joining another war in the Middle East, British Prime Minister Tony Blair will reinforce his governments views to Bush when the two leaders meet up in Brussels, Belgium next month and at an Anglo-American summit to be held in Washington some time after the May general election.

It's believed that Straw will also push forward Britain's case to U.S. Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice, a very close Bush confidante, when the pair meet up in London next month.

The growing suspicions that the United States is dead set on embarking on a military confrontation with Iran, grew after the publication of Seymour Hersh's report on American commandos operating inside Iran since mid-2004.

Even though the Pentagon attacked the report saying it was "riddled with errors of fundamental fact", no explicit denial of the covert operations were ever made.

American Vice-President Dick Cheney also waded into the Iranian issue by attempting to deflect attention away from the White House's plans of possibly attacking Iran. He warned that Israel could be the country that launches a pre-emptive strike on its own in an attempt to shut down Iran's nuclear program.

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_serv...service_id=6835

The U.S. Air Force is playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse with Iran's ayatollahs, flying American combat aircraft into Iranian airspace in an attempt to lure Tehran into turning on air defense radars, thus allowing U.S. pilots to grid the system for use in future targeting data, administration officials said.

"We have to know which targets to attack and how to attack them," said one, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The flights, which have been going on for weeks, are being launched from sites in Afghanistan and Iraq, and are part of Bush administration attempts to collect badly needed intelligence on Iran's possible nuclear weapons development sites, these sources said, speaking on condition of strict anonymity.

"These Iranian air defense positions are not just being observed, they're being 'templated,'" an ad ministration official said, explaining that the flights are part of a U.S. effort to develop "an electronic order of battle for Iran" in case of actual conflict.

However, a Pentagon spokesman told UPI he was unaware of any such actions.

"We are not aware of any incursions into Iranian air space," said Cdr. Nick Balice, chief of media at the U.S. Central Command.

In the event of an actual clash, Iran's air defense radars would be targeted for destruction by air-fired U.S. anti-radiation or ARM missiles, he said.

A serving U.S. intelligence official added: "You need to know what proportion of your initial air strikes are going to have to be devoted to air defense suppression."

A CentCom official told United Press International that in the event of a real military strikes, U.S. military forces would be using jamming, deception, and physical attack of Iran's sensors and its Command, Control and Intelligence (C3 systems).

He also made clear that that this entails "advance, detailed knowledge of the enemy's electronic order of battle and careful preplanning."

Ellen Laipson, president and CEO of the Henry L. Stimson Center and former CIA Middle East expert, said of the flights, "They are not necessarily an act of war in themselves, unless they are perceived as being so by the country that is being overflown."

Laipson explained: "It's not unusual for countries to test each other's air defenses from time to time, to do a little probing -- but it can be dangerous if the target country believes that such flights could mean an imminent attack."

She said her concern was that Iran "will not only turn on its air defense radars but use them to fire missiles at U.S. aircraft," an act which would "greatly increase tensions" between the two countries.

The air reconnaissance is t aking place in conjunction with other intelligence collection efforts, U.S. government officials said.

To collect badly needed intelligence on the ground about Iran's alleged nuclear program, the United States is depending heavily on Israeli-trained teams of Kurds in northern Iraq and on U.S.-trained teams of former Iranian exiles in the south to gather the intelligence needed for possible strikes against Iran's 13 or more suspected nuclear sites, according to serving and retired U.S. intelligence officials.

Both groups are doing cross border incursions into Iran, some in conjunction with U.S. Special Forces, these sources said.

They claimed the Kurds operating from Kurdistan, in areas they control. The second group, working from the south, is the Mujahedeen-e Khalq, listed by the State Department as a terrorist group, operating from southern Iraq, these sources said.

The use of the MEK for U.S.-intelligence-gathering missions strikes some former U.S. intelligence officials as bizarre. The State Department's annual publication, "Patterns of Global Terrorism," lists them as a terrorist organization.

According to the State Department report, the MEK were allies with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in fighting Iran and, in addition, "assisted Saddam in "suppressing opposition within Iraq, and performed internal security for the Iraqi regime."

After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, U.S. forces seized and destroyed MEK munitions and weapons, and about 4,000 MEK operatives were "consolidated, detained, disarmed, and screened for any past terrorist acts, the report said.

Shortly afterwards, the Bush administration began to use them in its covert operations against Iran, former senior U.S. intelligence officials said.

"They've been active in the south for some time," said former CIA counterterrorism chi ef, Vince Cannistraro.

The MEK are said to be currently launching raids from Camp Habib in Basra, but recently Pakistan President Pervez Musharaff granted permission for the MEK to operate from Pakistan's Baluchi area, U.S. officials said.

Asked about the Musharaff decision, Laipson said: "Not a smart move. The last thing he (Musharaff) needs is another batch of hotheads on Pakistani soil."

A former senior Iranian diplomat told United Press International that the Kurds in the Baluchi areas of Pakistan can operate in freedom because the Baluchis "have no love for the mullahs of Iran."

In fact, in the early 1980s, there were massacres of Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the area by Baluchi militants who wish to be independent, he said.

Both covert groups are tasked by the Bush administration with planting sensors or "sniffers" close to suspected Iran nuclear weapons development sites that will enable the Bush administration to monitor the progress on the program and develop targeting data, these sources said.

"There is an urgent need to obtain this information, at least in the minds of administration hawks," an administration official said.

"This looks to be turning into a pretty large-scale covert operation," a former long-time CIA operator in the region told UPI. In addition to the air strikes on allegedly Iranian nuclear weapons sites, the second aim of the operation is to secure the support in Iran of those "who view U.S. policy of hostility towards Iran's clerics with favor," he said.

The United States is also attempting to erect a covert infrastructure in Iran able to support U.S. efforts, this source said. It consists of Israelis and other U.S. assets, using third country passports, who have created a network of front companies that they own and staff. "It's a covert infrastructure for material support," a U.S. administration official said.

The network would be able to move money, weapons and personnel around inside Iran, he said. The covert infrastructure could also provide safe houses and the like, he said.

Cannistraro, who knew of the program, said: "I doubt the quality of these kinds or programs," explaining the United States had set up a similar network just before the hostage-rescue attempt in 1980. "People forget that the Iranians quickly rolled up that entire network after the rescue attempt failed," Cannistraro said.

The administration's fear is that by possessing a nuclear weapon, Iran will gain a new stature and status in the region strengthening its determination to remove the U.S presence from the region and making its hostility seem more credible, U.S. officials said.

There is also the administration's fear that Iran, with Syria's help, will accelerate Palestinian terrorism as Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip, these sources said.

So the United States, backed by Israel, is deadly earnest about neutralizing Iran's nuclear weapons site. "The administration has determined that there is no diplomatic solution," said John Pike, president of the online think-tank globalsecurity.org.

"Like the Israelis, the Bush administration has decided that forces of sweetness and light won't be running Iran any time soon, and that having atomic ayatollahs is simply not acceptable."

Said Cannistraro of the administration's policy: "Its very, very, very dangerous."

Source

Unidentified jet fires 12 missiles in Iran- Iran attacked www.jang.com.pk/thenews

Unidentified jet fires 12 missiles in Iran
(Updated at 1910 PST)
TEHRAN: A huge explosion has occurred in the Iranian city of Daylam.

According to Iranian TV an unidentified jet has dropped a missile however no reports of casualties have so far been received. Iran has also retaliated by firing anti-aircraft guns.

Iran’s nuclear installations are also located in Daylam however the target of the aircraft is yet to be ascertained and the country from which the aircraft came is also unidentified. It must be clarified that Iran is constructing its atomic powerhouse in Daylam while the US claims that Iran is preparing nuclear weapons there.

-------the Isrelis have done it again

Iran claims the explosion was caused by maintenance work and not by missile attacks.

They are also using drones or unmanned aircraft to do the surveillance. They were already sighted and some Iranians thought it were UFOs, in fact these were spy aircrafts that conducts the plotting for the exact location of the nuclear facilities.

Although the Iranians did not deny the existence but fell short of admitting that it is for military purposes, and the Americans want to zero down their location so that it can be programmed to their system for future attack just in case Iran would remain defiant to end it's proliferation.

Iran Launches Production of First Locally Built Submarine

May 12, 2005, 11:00

More International Military news and information:
http://www.defencenews.info

Iran has begun producing its first locally built submarine, state media reported May 11, saying the vessel was designed to remain undetected and fire missiles and torpedoes simultaneously.

The craft will boost Iran’s inventory of submarines patrolling Gulf waters that according to foreign military experts includes up to six Russian-built SSK or SSI Kilo class diesel submarines.

The defense ministry said the new submarine is called the Ghadir — a religious holiday to mark the day Shiite Muslims believe the prophet Mohammad anointed Imam Ali as his successor.

The vessel, a prototype of which is undergoing tests, is designed for rapid deployment, said the ministry, which gave no further details.

URL of this article:
http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publish/article_002390.shtml

Inside Iran's Secret War for Iraq

A TIME investigation reveals the Tehran regime's strategy to gain influence in Iraq--and why U.S. troops may now face greater dangers as a result
By MICHAEL WARE/BAGHDAD

Posted Monday, Aug. 15, 2005

The U.S. Military's new nemesis in Iraq is named Abu Mustafa al-Sheibani, and he is not a Baathist or a member of al-Qaeda. He is working for Iran. According to a U.S. military-intelligence document obtained by TIME, al-Sheibani heads a network of insurgents created by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps with the express purpose of committing violence against U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. Over the past eight months, his group has introduced a new breed of roadside bomb more lethal than any seen before; based on a design from the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hizballah, the weapon employs "shaped" explosive charges that can punch through a battle tank's armor like a fist through the wall. According to the document, the U.S. believes al-Sheibani's team consists of 280 members, divided into 17 bombmaking teams and death squads. The U.S. believes they train in Lebanon, in Baghdad's predominantly Shi'ite Sadr City district and "in another country" and have detonated at least 37 bombs against U.S. forces this year in Baghdad alone.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...00.html?cnn=yes

looking for trouble...inviting disaster.

time to call in steven seagal......


Iran to have nuclear bomb in six months, says Israel
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem and Rupert Cornwell in Washington
Published: 21 September 2005


Israel is seeking to rally international support for a tough United Nations stand against Iran's nuclear ambitions with a warning that it could have the knowledge to produce a nuclear bomb "within six months".

As Israel tried to stiffen resolve among the members of the International Atomic Energy Agency who are meeting in Vienna, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon urged the US to take the lead in ensuring Iran was brought before the UN Security Council "as soon as possible".

Mr Sharon told Fox News that Iran was "afraid of a Security Council meeting and sanctions that might be taken against them".

Mr Sharon appeared to indicate that Israel was not contemplating a unilateral military strike on a nuclear plant in Iran, of the sort it carried out on the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981. While acknowledging that Israel cannot "live with" Iran as a nuclear military power, he added: "I don't think [it] is the sole responsibility of Israel. I think this only can be an international pressure on Iran."

But Mr Sharon underscored the urgency of concerted international pressure on Iran by declaring that when Iran solved "technical problems" in developing a nuclear weapon "we then will reach a point of no return". Without giving evidence, Sylvan Shalom, Israel's Foreign Minister, implied that it could be as early as next year. He told a meeting of Jewish leaders in New York: "According to our people, security and intelligence, they are very, very close. It may be only six months before they will have that full knowledge."

The public diplomacy by Israel came amid reports that the EU had circulated a draft resolution for the IAEA, seeking to report to the Security Council "Iran's many failures and breaches of its obligations to comply with its Nuclear Proliferation Treaty Safeguards Agreement". Iran has threatened to re-start uranium enrichment and to reconsider inspections of its facilities if it was referred to the Security Council.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10298179/

Reports: Russia agrees to sell missiles to Iran
$1 billion deal expected to draw heat from U.S.

Associated Press
Updated: 6:02 p.m. ET Dec. 2, 2005


MOSCOW - Russia has agreed to sell more than $1 billion worth of missiles and other defense systems to Iran, Russian news media reported Friday, a move expected to draw a heated reaction from the United States.

The Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies cited unidentified sources in the Russian military-industrial complex as saying that Russian and Iranian officials had signed contracts in November that would send up to 30 Tor-M1 missile systems to Iran over the next two years.

Interfax said the Tor-M1 system could identify up to 48 targets and fire at two targets simultaneously at a height of up to 20,000 feet.

The news agency quoted its source as saying the two countries had reached a deal on modernizing Iran’s air force inventory, as well.

The deal was also reported in the Vedomosti newspaper, which cited an unidentified manager at a military-industrial enterprise as saying Russia would provide Iran with 29 Tor missile systems that had originally been manufactured on orders from Greece.

The state arms export agency, Rosoboronexport, said it had no information on the reported deal.

No Iranian officials were immediately available for comment Friday, a weekly holiday in the country. There were no reports in the Iranian media about the deal.

Straining relations with the U.S.
While the conventional weapons deal would not violate international agreements, it was likely to elicit an adverse reaction from the United States.

“I expect that Russia’s decision to supply the complexes to Iran will meet a negative reaction from the West, but this criticism will be of a political rather than legal character,” Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, was quoted by Vedomosti as saying.

Russia, a key Iranian ally, has resisted U.S.-led efforts to bring Tehran before the U.N. Security Council over its alleged nuclear weapons program, insisting that the disputes be resolved through the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Russia is also building a nuclear reactor in the Iranian city of Bushehr.

Meanwhile, the United States and Russia are supporting efforts by the European Union to persuade Iran to halt development of nuclear weapons in exchange for economic incentives, such as trade opportunities.

Russia, which has a long and lucrative relationship with Iran, has offered to try to resolve a key dispute by offering to enrich uranium for an Iranian civilian nuclear energy program as a safeguard against Iran using enrichment for weapons purposes.

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said Wednesday that the Bush administration had not endorsed the Russian proposal and that “we continue to take a hard line” on Iran’s not controlling a process that could produce nuclear weapons.

Burns said sidetracked negotiations between Iran and Britain, France and Germany probably would be resumed in early January.

Israel considers Iran to be its biggest threat, and doesn’t believe Tehran’s claims that its nuclear program is peaceful. Israeli concerns were heightened recently after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged that Israel be “wiped off the map.”

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

PolicyWatch #1064
Iran’s Air Forces: Struggling to Maintain Readiness

By Fariborz Haghshenass
December 20, 2005

Recent events, including Iran’s launch of its first space imaging satellite, Russia’s announcement that it is selling Iran twenty-nine Tor-M1 (SA-15 Gauntlet) mobile short-range surface-to-air missile systems for $700 million, and the crash of an Iranian air force C-130 transport into an apartment block in Tehran, have focused attention on Iran’s evolving air and aerospace power capabilities, as well as on Iran’s longstanding problems in maintaining its aging fleet of military and civilian aircraft.

A Force Divided

Iran’s air and aerospace forces are divided between the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (regular air force) and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Air Force (Revolutionary Guards air force).

The regular air force is by far the larger and more capable service. Its main role is to defend Iran against foreign enemies; in the event of invasion, this might include long-range offensive missions. To this end, it operates some two hundred and twenty combat aircraft (F-14A Tomcats, F-4D/E Phantoms, F-5E/F Tigers, Su-24MKs, MiG-29A/UBs, Mirage F-1EQs, and F-7Ns) at various states of readiness; around fifteen reconnaissance aircraft (RF-4Es and RF-5As); at least one hundred training aircraft (F-5B/Simorghs, FT-7s, PC-7/S-68s, and F-33 Bonanza/Parastoos); some forty-five transport and tanker aircraft (Boeing 707s and 747s, C-130E/H Hercules, and F-27 Friendships); around thirty-five helicopters used for search and rescue and transport; and four P-3F Orions for maritime surveillance of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. The regular air force also operates a unit equipped with the Zelzal surface-to-surface missile system, which has a range of 300 kilometers (the Revolutionary Guards also deploy Zelzal missiles).

The Revolutionary Guards air force provides close air support and airlift capabilities for the Revolutionary Guards’ rapid reaction units. The backbone of the Revolutionary Guards air force consists of ten Su-25 Frogfoot attack aircraft (including seven flown from Iraq to Iran during the 1991 Gulf War and kept airworthy with the help of Georgian technicians) and around forty EMB-312 Tucanos, its main close air support aircraft. The Revolutionary Guards air force also maintains some thirty Y-12 and Dassault Falcon 20 light transports, a number of MFI-17 Mushaqs and Super Mushaqs trainers, and locally built Ababil and Mohajer reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

The Revolutionary Guards air force also operates a sizeable rotary-wing force consisting of around twenty Mi-171Sh helicopters for transport and armed assault roles and a large transport force based in Shiraz equipped with around fifteen ex-Iraqi Il-76s (originally operated by the regular air force) and twelve An-74T-200 transports. The Revolutionary Guards Corps puts great importance on rapid deployment and airborne operations, due to its internal security function, and it regularly practices the airborne insertion of troops and equipment over relatively long ranges.

Finally, the Revolutionary Guards air force operates several hundred short- and medium-range mobile ballistic missiles, including the Shahab-3/-3B with a range of up to 2,000 kilometers, which is the mainstay of Iran’s strategic deterrent. If Iran ever produces nuclear weapons, the Revolutionary Guards air force will likely control them.

Institutional Rivalries and Tensions

Rivalries between the regular armed forces and the Revolutionary Guards Corps during the early stages of the Iran-Iraq War precluded effective cooperation between the two. The war taught the Revolutionary Guards commanders that they needed to be able to operate independently, which required organizing their ranks into ground, air, and naval arms like the regular armed forces. As a result, in 1986 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered creation of three separate branches of the Revolutionary Guards, including an air force. Not surprisingly, the new service lacked the necessary technical expertise, and was instructed by the ruling clerics to pass its first “advanced” fighter aircraft, Chinese Chengdu F-7s, on to the regular air force. Ever since, the two Iranian air forces have had a tense relationship. They are not known ever to have held a single joint exercise. It is unclear whether they could operate together effectively in the event of a crisis.

Despite its junior status, the Revolutionary Guards air force may eventually supplant the regular air force as the dominant air service as a result of its access to funding, its active recruitment of the best graduates from technical degree-granting programs, and the rising influence of Revolutionary Guards–affiliated politicians, such as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. By contrast, the regular air force has struggled to compensate for the loss of growing numbers of experienced technical personnel and aircrews to retirement; it has responded by pooling the existing technicians into centralized task forces. In the early days after the Islamic Revolution, the regular air force failed to create the training infrastructure needed to grow a new generation of technical specialists—a problem only partly rectified by the creation of Sattari Air University following the war with Iraq. In light of these problems, it is not inconceivable that Iran’s two air force services might eventually merge in order to create a leaner, more efficient, and more effective organization better able to deal with the challenges Iran is likely to face in the future.

Aviation Industry

The Islamic revolution resulted in the departure of more than 40,000 American military advisors from Iran. In March 1979, the U.S. government banned any further foreign military sales or transfers to Iran, and by November 1979, the U.S. government officially suspended all licenses for export to Iran. Compounding Iran’s problems, Iraq invaded in September 1980.

Sanctions forced Iran toward self-sufficiency in operating, maintaining, repairing, and modifying its existing American-built systems. The regular air force was at the forefront of these efforts; it was the military branch most dependent on American assistance.

The regular air force initially decided to produce aircraft spare parts for its own use. Teams of experts established relationships with local universities and technical schools, and by the final stages of the Iran-Iraq War, the regular air force’s Self-Sufficiency Jihad Directorate (originally named the Industrial Research Unit) had established depot-level maintenance shops in several air bases around the country. These shops were responsible for repairing systems worn out or damaged by the war.

While doing depot-level maintenance and repair, regular air force experts drew up blueprints for aircraft parts, so that they might be reverse-engineered using methods similar to those used by China. A close relationship developed between the military-industrial complexes of the two countries. Many Western systems were shared with Beijing, which in turn helped Iran set up production lines for the local manufacture of these parts.

Today, Iran’s aviation industry produces modern flight avionics and communications gear, two types of engines, airframes, in-flight refueling gear, and flight simulators. In addition, the regular air force has produced a variety of ordnance, including both “dumb” and guided bombs, and air-to-air, air-to-ground, and surface-to-air missiles, including the Fatter air-to-air missile (a Sidewinder look-alike), the Sedjil (an air-to-air version of the Hawk surface-to-air missile), the AGM-379/20 Zoobin, the GBU-67/B Qadr, and the Sattar laser-guided air-to-ground missile.

The regular air force has also begun producing aircraft. Recent examples include the Tazarve jet-trainer and Saegheh fighter (the latter is based on the F-5E, but has a twin vertical tail configuration to improve takeoff and maneuvering performance). Both aircraft are still in the prototype stage, and Iranian industry has a ways to go to establish a viable design/production base.

As for the Revolutionary Guards air force, it has improved its technical base by concentrating most of its capability in a semicorporate entity, the Pars Aviation Services Company, which not only maintains the Revolutionary Guards air force’s own combat and transport fleet, but also offers its services to local airlines that operate seventeen Tupolev Tu-154 passenger planes. Yet despite making major strides in this area, Iran continues to experience problems in maintaining its aging fleet of military and civilian aircraft, and it has experienced a number of major aviation disasters in the past decade.

Current Trends

Iran is the only country in the region that does not receive ongoing support from the original manufacturers of its weapons systems. Until very recently, Russia had not been deeply involved in the maintenance of Iran’s Eastern bloc weapon systems, perhaps in part because the Islamic Republic has made many modifications to its Russian-origin systems. Moreover, as a result of U.S. pressure, Russia has refused to provide Iran with newer combat aircraft beyond those ordered in the late 1980s and early 1990s, though Russia recently agreed to upgrade and modernize the avionics and weapons systems in Iran’s existing fleet of MiG-29 and Su-24 aircraft. As far as new purchases are concerned, Iran has largely had to settle for semi-obsolescent designs from China.

Nonetheless, the Iranian air and air defense forces can count on the advantages conferred by strategic depth and an indigenous military industrial capability. The full potential of Iran’s military industrial capacity remains unknown to the outside world and may yet manage to surprise Iran’s adversaries in future wars.

Iran’s senior military leaders know that Iran’s air forces would not be able to resist an invasion by a major power such as the United States. As a result, Iran has not focused on creating a large military, but rather has focused on developing the abilities to conduct continuous (day and night) operations through the acquisition of night vision equipment; to wage asymmetric warfare by creating a large popular militia (the Basij) and sea denial capabilities; and to strike even its most distant enemies by acquiring reconnaissance satellites, high altitude reconnaissance and strike UAVs, and long-range rocket and medium-range ballistic missile systems.

Fariborz Haghshenass is a pseudonym for an expert on the Iranian military.