Analysis - Iranian fighter programmes: Bona fide or bluff?
Over recent years, Iran has made great play of its burgeoning domestic aerospace capabilities by revealing a number of 'new' combat aircraft types to the world.
For about the last five years, state media has heralded a steady stream of new fighters and other types which, it claims, demonstrate the Islamic republic's ability to design, develop, and manufacture the latest generation of combat aviation.
However, while the Iranian aerospace sector has had undoubted success in reverse engineering Western technologies in the development of such platforms (most likely with Russian and Chinese assistance), the end results all too often appear to fall short of the lofty claims made for them by the country's military and political leaders.
Where new platforms are promised, pale imitations of already fielded Western types are produced; and when an altogether new type is actually revealed, its design limitations are all too apparent. All of this leads to questions as to just how real this self-proclaimed Iranian aerospace expertise actually is, and whether it is more bluff and bluster than bona fide capability.
Since 2009 Iran has rolled out five 'new' fighter types in the Simorgh (Phoenix), Azarakhsh (Lightning), Saeghe (Thunderbolt), Saeghe-2 (Thunderbolt-2), and Qaher (Conqueror/Omnipotent) F-313 'stealth fighter'.
In spite of the initial regime hype of these being wholly indigenously developed platforms, with the exception of the F-313 these are all remodelled variants of the US-made Northrop F-5 Tiger II, which was supplied to the Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF) prior to the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
The Shah of Iran was supplied with close to 200 single-seat F-5E and twin-seat F-5F fighters during the 1970s (US-supplied fighter types during this period comprised 79 Grumman F-14A Tomcats; 177 McDonnell Douglas F-4E, 32 F-4D and 16 RF-4E Phantom IIs; and 141 F-5E and 28 F-5F Tiger IIs).
With fighter numbers being diminished through attrition during the Iran-Iraq War and from accidents (only about 150 of these US-supplied aircraft remain in the inventory, of which about 50 are F-5s), Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries (IAMI) was required to convert 13 of its single-seat F-5Es into twin-seat F-5F operational trainers under the Simorgh programme. While this work is understood to have required the remodelling of the entire front cockpit section without any assistance from the original equipment manufacturer (OEM), it still amounted to little more than a reworked version of an already existing aircraft.
Aside from the large numbers in which they were bought by the Shah of Iran, the F-5 is a very capable yet relatively simple jet fighter. Hence, of all the types in the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force's (IRIAF) inventory (as well as the US-supplied aircraft, Iran also fields Chinese and interred Iraqi fighters) it is the F-5 that has been consistently singled out for remodelling and improvement.
Following on from the Simorgh programme, Iran revealed the Hevapeimasazi (Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries Company: HESA) Azarakhsh. Billed as Iran's first domestically manufactured combat jet, the Azarakhsh is again a modified variant of the F-5.
However, while the Simorgh involved a straight conversion from a single-seat to a twin-seat configuration, the Azarakhsh was reported to include a number of unspecified Iranian-developed improvements, as well as Russian and perhaps even Chinese systems being incorporated. To the best of the West's knowledge, the Azarakhsh has not entered service with the IRIAF, and is believed to have been a risk-reduction exercise for the follow-on Saeghe.
First revealed in 2007, the Saeghe is essentially an F-5E that has been modified by HESA. The aircraft's most obvious modification is the twin-fin configuration that is similar to that of the Boeing F/A-18 Hornet. Indeed, Iranian officials have previously said that the Saeghe's performance is comparable to the Hornet's, although such claims cannot be independently verified.
While it is not known to what extent the aircraft's engines or avionics have been modified,
IHS Jane's understands that Russia has supplied many internal systems, and some Grumman F-14A Tomcat and MiG-29 'Fulcrum' components may also have been adapted for the jet. It is not clear how many of the IRIAF's F-5Es will undergo the Saeghe conversion, but Iranian media has previously reported that 24 such aircraft are planned. The first operational unit was stood up in 2010.
In February 2015, Iran unveiled the 'second generation' of the Saeghe, dubbed the Saeghe-2. While the original Saeghe was based on the single-seat F-5E, the Saeghe-2 is modelled on the twin-seat F-5F operational trainer. On the surface, the twin-seat variant bears the same twin-tail modification as the Saeghe, although it is not possible to ascertain what (if any) internal improvements may have been made. The IRIAF is believed to have 17 F-5F aircraft remaining in its inventory, which may be suitable for conversion to the Saeghe-2 configuration. According to state media, this twin-seat version will be used as a light fighter and ground attack platform.
Aside from the F-5-type models that have been rolled out over recent years, Iran has revealed one type in the Qaher (Conqueror/Omnipotent) F-313 'stealth fighter' which it claims to be a newly designed and developed domestic combat aircraft.
First rolled out in early 2013, the F-313 was immediately met with almost universal derision from the international press, with design features that showed the aircraft to be fundamentally flawed. The mock-up that was shown on 2 February 2013 displayed features that suggested no fly-by-wire control of the aircraft, poorly positioned air inlets, and an almost comically small cockpit (complete with a Perspex canopy).
In this regard, the F-313 is something of an anomaly in the pantheon of recently revealed Iranian fighter projects. While the Simorgh, the Azarakhsh, the Saeghe, and the Saeghe-2 are all somewhat limited in their scope in that they are derivatives of an already fielded fighter type, they do appear at least to be fully functional combat aircraft, whereas the F-313's obviously flawed design attributes all point to it being showcased to a domestic audience for propaganda purposes rather than as a serious attempt at building a combat aircraft.
While Iran's aerospace sector has had undoubted success over recent years in reverse engineering Western technologies (as showcased by the F-5-derviatives), its seeming preoccupation with scoring propaganda victories in the unveiling of 'new' aircraft types that are not really anything of the sort does much to overshadow and undermine its impressive efforts in sustaining a 40-year old fighter force in the face of international sanctions with no OEM support whatsoever.
Although some of its efforts, such as the F-313, fall well short of the mark, others, like the Simorgh, Saeghe, and Saeghe-2, will no doubt prove to be altogether more successful. As such, it would seem that Iran's recent fighter pronouncements have been, and will continue to be, based on a combination of real-world capabilities spliced with a hefty dose of bluff for domestic and international consumption.
