U.S.built Iranian aircraft

What does he mean where did they get all this money? Oil of course.

The shaffah programm receved alot of help from the russians. You can easily notice it's resemblance to the yak-130 and other derivatives.

MIGleader said:

What does he mean where did they get all this money? Oil of course.

The shaffah programm receved alot of help from the russians. You can easily notice it's resemblance to the yak-130 and other derivatives.

Click to expand...

I was wondering because Iran's oil industry has been damaged by all the Western embargoes. Obviously it must get most of the money form oil sales to China and Russia. I was just surprised because so much Iranian military equpment seems so modern.

Thanks for the info. Wow. If this is true, Iran must be one determined country. Building their own indigenous spare parts, aircraft, minisubs and now a nuclear programme! How do they get the money for all this?

Click to expand...

Yeah, but some of the info may not be reliable. However, the info on shafaq is pretty good. It's odd that a trainer/attack plane would receive so much praise and coverage. That either speaks to Iran's secrecy or the true nature of Shafaq as a fighter plane. Not sure exactly.

And yet the Shaffah looks so modern. How did they manage to build that? Did they copy their U.S. aircraft or something? How do they manage all this?

Click to expand...

Well the Shafaq is believed to be based off a joint project with Russia to build the MIG-LFI. What's more interesting to me is the F/B-44. First time I've heard about it and if it is more advanced than Shafaq, then it must be some impressive piece of hardwar.

DPRKPTboat said:

I was wondering because Iran's oil industry has been damaged by all the Western embargoes. Obviously it must get most of the money form oil sales to China and Russia. I was just surprised because so much Iranian military equpment seems so modern.

Click to expand...

Iran's oil industry damaged by western embargoes? Are you sure about that?
The US tries to convince others not to buy oil from Iran on occasion, but that is far from an embargo, and most don't listen. Also, I think Russia has enough oil of its own.

As to US fighters in Iran, I would think despite indigenous spare parts and upgrades, they are still in poor condition.

Engines for example: at some point no amount of spare parts will keep an eninge running--they have very limited life spans and must be switched out or completely overhauled, and I doubt Iran has the ability to perform this type of work for US produced military jet engines. That means that if these planes are still flying, the engines must be close to or past their design life, and assuming this to be true: 1) these planes could not be relied upon in a time of conflict or 2) the Iranians fly these types only sparingly, meaning pilots lack thorough training in these types.

That seems to me to be one of the main problems, but perhaps the Iranians have gotten around this somehow.

walter said:

As to US fighters in Iran, I would think despite indigenous spare parts and upgrades, they are still in poor condition.

Engines for example: at some point no amount of spare parts will keep an eninge running--they have very limited life spans and must be switched out or completely overhauled, and I doubt Iran has the ability to perform this type of work for US produced military jet engines. That means that if these planes are still flying, the engines must be close to or past their design life, and assuming this to be true: 1) these planes could not be relied upon in a time of conflict or 2) the Iranians fly these types only sparingly, meaning pilots lack thorough training in these types.

That seems to me to be one of the main problems, but perhaps the Iranians have gotten around this somehow.

Click to expand...

Well I know that several of the IRIAF Phantoms and Tomcats were cannabalized for spare parts. The other aircraft probably mostly needed spare engines like you said. I haven't heard any information if Iran produces engines doemstically as well as spare parts, but if anyone has, please post it here.

There is little doubt the Iranians have made some strides with their American acquired equipment. Though it's a hit of miss process of what comes up in availability. For instance their stock of 285 AIM-54 missiles was idled for many years. Until they clandestinely acquired new batteries. Some things they keep running out of sheer amounts of aircraft produced, like hueys and Seacobra gunships. Parts are easy to find. My understanding is that only about 33 of the Phantoms were airworthy. Folks incorrectly disparage the Iranians. They are quite capable and folks forget they have a complete USA built academy system. They are a credit to themselves really.

dannytoro said:

There is little doubt the Iranians have made some strides with their American acquired equipment. Though it's a hit of miss process of what comes up in availability. For instance their stock of 285 AIM-54 missiles was idled for many years. Until they clandestinely acquired new batteries. Some things they keep running out of sheer amounts of aircraft produced, like hueys and Seacobra gunships. Parts are easy to find. My understanding is that only about 33 of the Phantoms were airworthy. Folks incorrectly disparage the Iranians. They are quite capable and folks forget they have a complete USA built academy system. They are a credit to themselves really.

Click to expand...

After the War with Iraq, and then years and years of not having the correct or enough parts, their old US aircraft are not very numerous and certainly, though they may fly and have some of those older systems still capable, are not nearly up to modern capabilities.

Do they need to be? Well, if they had to battle Iraq again, or say, Oman or something...no they do not.

But, if it were say Turkey or Saudi Arabia or Israel they went up against, they would fair badly. If were the US, there would be no contest.

So, yes, they are making do with what they can, and what they have...and they are being creative about it and do have quite a bit if industrial expertise, know-how, and capabilities. They should not be under-estimated,

Having said that, they are still significantly dependent on outside help for the more difficult and higher tech items, from their air defenses to numerous other programs.

Iran operates a lot of American reverse engineered equipment mainly in its vast helicopter fleet, during the time of the Shah Iran had a Chinnoks fleet in plan or in operation of over 140 CH-46!!! That inventory hasn't been passed till today by any other nation outside USA, not even UK, back in the day Iran was a regional superpower

In addition they had 6 CH-53 delivered and captured another 5 from US in Operation Eagle Claw

Here is a locally built AH-1 called Toufan 2

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/aziqbal/c5bcdec7bdf8c741d3088fa4af9f1854_zps83b08fb9.jpg[/IMG]

Two of RH-53 with the navy