Iranian Air Force - Struggling to maintain readiness
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IranÂ’s Air Forces: Struggling to Maintain Readiness
By Fariborz Haghshenass
December 22, 2005
Recent events, including IranÂ’s launch of its first space imaging satellite, RussiaÂ’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 IranÂ’s evolving air and aerospace power capabilities, as well as on IranÂ’s longstanding problems in maintaining its aging fleet of military and civilian aircraft.
A Force Divided
IranÂ’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 GuardsÂ’ 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 IranÂ’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 IranÂ’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 forceÂ’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 forceÂ’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 IranÂ’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 IranÂ’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 IranÂ’s military industrial capacity remains unknown to the outside world and may yet manage to surprise IranÂ’s adversaries in future wars.
IranÂ’s senior military leaders know that IranÂ’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.
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=2422 -
Iranian's struggling to maitain their old fleet force them to look east for new source of planes:
Iran to buy Chinese aircraft to equip air fleet
Iranian charge d'affaires in China, Farhad Asadi said that talks are currently underway between Iran and independent states such as China on the prospect of purchasing aircraft to equip the country's air fleet.
Speaking to China Youth daily, Asadi referred to US sanctions and recent crash of C-130 plane resulting in the martyrdom of a number of media persons and said that this is a historical shame for Washington to witness that a nation does not bow to its illegal demands despite attempts to suppress it.
"Sanctions against a nation on various issues such as non-military aircraft parts can be pursued at the international level," he added.
In response to a question on whether Iran will use Chinese planes in its air fleet, he noted that Iran intends to procure its requirement from independent and friendly countries.
He added that talks are currently underway on the issue and that any kind of cooperation in this respect will be welcomed.
Concerning collaboration and mutual relations in 2006, Asadi said that the two states currently enjoy the most favorable ties and referred to China as Iran's best trade partner.
"Iran and China have potentials for long-term collaboration based on mutual confidence and safeguarding each other's interests.
Iran's foreign policy outlook as an Asian country contributes to development of mutual relations and understanding.
"Bilateral agreements on cooperation in the oil and gas sector will result in several-billion-dollar revenue over the next 25 years.
Besides implementation of dozens of minor and major industrial projects in Iran by Chinese enterprises mark the significance of such relations in economic and trade fields," he added.
Asadi noted that political understanding and commonalties between the two states such as emphasis on the pivotal role of the UN in international affairs, opposition to the use of force, resolving discords through peaceful ways and focusing on the idea of a multipolar world provide the most suitable grounds for such cooperation at the regional and international levels.
He predicted that trade exchanges between the two sides will exceed 10 billion dollars in the near future.
Turning to Iran as the tourist destination of Chinese people in 2005, he said that this is a factor contributing to further bolstering of relations.
Replying to a question about Iran's domestic and foreign policies, he said that the country's domestic policy is based on improving the living conditions of people from all walks of life, fair distribution of wealth, promoting cultural principles as well as national and Islamic values, further transparency in the performance of various state sectors and safeguarding people's financial and social rights.
"On the other hand, Iran's foreign policy is based on respect for independence and territorial integrity of all countries,
non-interference in their internal affairs, expansion of friendship as well as material and spiritual cooperation with them.
"Negotiation is Iran's foremost option for settlement of difference of opinions based on mutual respect and safeguarding of bilateral interests. We are strongly against production and promotion of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, international criminal acts and drug trafficking," he concluded. -
I have a feeling the Chinese aircraft may not arrive in time for the US air strikes!
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The plane possible could be sold to Iran is the Sino-Pakistan joint developed FC-1/JF-17 fighter jets
In today's Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily. Gregory R. Copley, an Editor of Global Information System, reports of a possible sale to Iran by China (PRC) of the new fighter aircraft built by China and Pakistan, the FC-1/JF-17 Thunder fighter. The fighter uses fly-by-wire systems that were transferred illegally to the PRC during the Clinton Administration.
Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily sees the sale as a likely consequence of a new accord between Iran and the PRC, formalized by the signing of a memorandum of understanding in Beijing on November 30, 2004. Under the agreement, the PRC will exchange expertise in the areas of satellites and aerospace technology.
The Bush administration responded to the memorandum of understanding by imposing additional sanctions on four organizations in the PRC and one in North Korea (DPRK). Though the Bush administration recognizes that the technology has already been lost to China and North Korea, it now sees the Iranian clerical Government as one of its most significant strategic concerns. The report claims that stolen technology, based upon a Global Positionining
System, has already found its way into the guidance systems of Iranian Shabab 3D strategic ballistic missile systems that now target Israeli assets among others.
http://headland.blogspot.com/2004/12/more-of-consequences-of-perfidy.html