Iranian Air Force (IRIAF/IRGC-ASF) | News and Discussions

[Hack-Hook]

24 x YAK-130M (combat capable AT)
24 IRIAF MIG-29 upgraded to full M2/SMT standard
30 IRIAF SU-24MK upgraded to MK2 standard with ALBM capacity
50 additional MIG-29 + 20 additional SU-24MK2 airframes
50 x SU-35S/30SM (LP/Local Assembly)
XX x SU-57/75 (LP/Local Assembly)

What really happened as per rumors

6 x YAK-130 basic ATs
12-24 x SU-35S
Not a single Mig-29 or SU-24 is touched

ideal would be our decision makers learn that Russia is not our friend and but some money in further developing kowsar and then adopt it

 

[Piet]

Don't worry. Times have changed. The Atlanticist faction is Russia is all but dead. Not even Medvedev would support such madness. The Chinese are business minded and their cooperation with Iran will not be a publicity stunt. But be certain that work is being done. The world has passed the West. Trump is NOT negotiating. He's surrendering on the behalf of Europe. That's why they're not invited to the party. The articles of surrender are being drafted and Russia will get more that it asked for before the beginning of the SMO. I hope you remember before it started that Lavrov travelled to all major European capitals and informed that Russia wouldn't accept any more NATO encroachment and that a new European security system had be negotiated. They literally laugh at him. Now, after billions spent and nearly a million dead Ukrainians, no one is laughing. The West effed itself and the US is cutting it's losses. There's no coming back from this!

Serious stuff.

I just wonder if European troop deployment to Ukraine is even feasible. That is, without US participation. Which at this time may be dismissed out of hand.

We are indeed living in interesting times.

Piet.

If Trump offers Putin enough of the good stuff like unfreezing the Kremlins funds all over the world, allows Putin to seize the assets of countries that 'stole' from it, like luxury yachts etc., I would be nervous right now if I was Iran.

As you mentioned, Russia has done this to Iran three times already, with a 4th time likely on its doorstep.

The only possible exception that I see is if these two leaders agree that Russia supply, and continue to supply, 'vanilla' versions of arms to Iran.

This would enable Russia to save face viz-a-viz its current and future arms customers.

BUT, by doing this, the supply of 'vanilla' arms to Iran would likely ignite a rush for modern US arms to be sold all over the region up there. Thus, increased US exports, increased employment, increased funds flowing in, content voters and general populace, and last but not least, increased US control of what purchasers of its arms may or may not do with these.



Yup - you snooze you lose.

Piet.

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This is the thermal guided Nawab.



Has an image of the radar-guided Zubin ever been released with such clarity.

Thanks

Piet

 

[Piet]

it was obvious, i said it and people are going to lose face here. and soon the new kowsar will come out of the imaginary trash cans of Dr. Mason

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I suppose that this will only become clear when actual images emerge.

Piet

 

[Flotilla]

RuAF lost only 6 su-35 jets in Ukraine war. bigger losses were su-25 (32 lost), su-34 (27 lost), su-24 (14 lost), and su-30 (12 lost).

Good. That is the reason why many new Su35s are not needed in RuAF, they want more Su57 for air superiority and Su34 for CAS and tactical high end bomb.

 

[Ali_Baba]

6 su-35 lost = 5%
32 su-25 lost = 20%
27 su-34 lost = 16%
14 su-24 lost = 5%
12 su-30 lost = 11%

To me, those losses are quite small given the length and type of war ( though the Su-25/Su-34 took some serious hits early on). What do you think ?

 

[Persian Gulf]

To me, those losses are quite small given the length and type of war ( though the Su-25/Su-34 took some serious hits early on). What do you think ?

we are talking about $5-10 billion of material losses in the jets alone

significant but not devastating for a 2 year war with a large opponent backed by the EU and USA with $200 billion+ of military aid

 

[Piet]

I wrote here before that F-14A's AWG-9 has been completely upgraded as AWG-9+ in F-14AM upgradation with full digitalization and parts replacement to APG-71 standard (300 KM Search range).

Good for a non-AESA radar. It was essentially on the job training. And definitely not something to be consigned to the dust bin of history.

Its longer-ranged AESA antenna variant (~600 KM Search range) can be integrated on Sahed-149 Gaza HALE as radome or in the belly.

First time I hear of an AESA longer-range version of AWG=9+. Do you have any further info on this. If Iran can fabricate such a longer-range radar, and even if this radar goes down with F-14 retirement proper, its tech should be trickled down to smaller, more manageable, proportions.

Such an unmanned AWACS at 50K feet minimizes radar horizion problems and will provide 24/7 persistent wide area surveillance in the form of datalinks to IADS and IRIAF. 15-20 x such systems can even form distributed AWACS Sensory network (DASN) operating inside and around Iranian airspace that is guarded by IADS and IRIAF. MALE/HALE UCAVs are becoming more and more vulnerable though with the advancement of SAMs but its cost will be like 1/100th of what a modern AWACS costs and there is no human life involved.

True about the increasing vulnerability of such UAV's to ever advancing SAM's. And of course the VLR AIM-174B AAM. The point you make about costs and no lives to lose is very valid.

Over Persian Gulf it wont even be able to hide in terrain masking. It won't be invading any enemy territory like what Israel is doing with its F-35. In return, its IRBIS-E PESA would not do the same for a stealth enemy so the pilot has to rely upon IRST+WVR package which means a death sentence at BVR against F-22/35 and even SU-57/J-35.

Granted.

IRIAF needs SU-35S/30SM2 in high numbers, probably like 150 with TOT because Russian plants cant produce this much high numbers. Meanwhile IRIAF should chase SU-57 because post peace deal Russia will no longer be giving it to Iran. They might even halt the Yak and Sukhoi tranfers.



IMO local AIM-7 should be ditched in favor of more R-77, more than what SU-35S and MIG fleet will require. It will be a waste of time project considering its only user will be a hypothetical Kowsar fleet in future. There is a reason we are not seeing Maghsoud after Fakour-90's production as the F-14 fleet is going to be retired. With Kowsar project gone to bin, the AIM-7 Arash project wont leave the mockups either. Azarakhsh (AIM-9X equivalent) got its life through Airdefence otherwise same would have happened to it as well.

https://defencepk.com/forums/attachments/img_20250116_105537_557_gs71-jpg.95253/

 

[Tijani]

Serious stuff.

I just wonder if European troop deployment to Ukraine is even feasible. That is, without US participation. Which at this time may be dismissed out of hand.

We are indeed living in interesting times.

Piet.



This is the thermal guided Nawab.

View attachment 103075

Has an image of the radar-guided Zubin ever been released with such clarity.

Thanks

Piet

The Europeans are pretentious vassalstates and they've just been served a bit of reality by the Orange Monkey Don Trump. He doesn't give a rats ass about their feelings. They're all in stress mode and scurrying to Washington to try and placate the Don by kissing the ring. Even the gay midget in France has backtracked on his nonsense of sending troops to the conflict in Ukraine. Not that the have the independent military logistic ability nor is their any real willingness among the sheep to sacrifice themselves as fertiliser on Ukrainian black soil.
Nothing is going to change the reality. Western states are not equipped for the kind of real war raging in the Ukrainian theater. The main protagonist, Russia and the US, have decided to end the war, henceforth nobody else matters. I respect Don Trump for playing politics with no pretence. Interesting times indeed!

 

[Mr Iran Eye]

I suppose that this will only become clear when actual images emerge.

Piet

There seems to be some interesting stuff on the screen, the Supreme Leader seems to find it very interesting

 

[ToddE]

I think you are exaggerating any US/Russia deal. One thing it is a Ribbertrop-Molotov Pact to split Ukraine in parts and other it is an Alliance. Did Hitler made any alliance with Stalin?.

In the Iranian context, it does not matter what happens to Ukrainian borders. What matters is that the current AIPAC-US is deeply sympathetic towards Russia ... the same Russia that started the war, got embroiled in it, and now seems to be coming out of it thanks to Trump. They will eventually re-establish their relations with Trump-US and the entire West where they have huge socio-economic incentives, and Iran has little to offer in comparison in the name of INSTC, Russia won't need Iranian drones or missiles anymore. Russia has nothing to gain from Iran while it has everything to gain from AIPAC-US. Russia technically never approved or sided with Iran in the Iranian clash with Israel-NATO-US-EU in the name of treacherous Sunni Arabs. History kinda repeating itself.

Regarding the Sukhois. How many Su35s would need RuAF to make up losses?, 12?, 16?.
RuAF have two priorities; 1 more Su 57s, and 2 more Su 34s.

Russia has lost 90+ jets in war, they need not only to replace these massive numbers of downed jets but also upgrade the squadrons who previously operated 3rd or 4.0 generation aircrafts since SU-25/24/27 or MIG-29/31 are no longer being built. Their option in 4+ generation is SU-30SM/35S or SU-57 for 5th gen. If Iranian order is indeed 50 x SU-35S then it will be completed by 2028-2030 at earliest.

Su30 and Su35 are assembly lines to divert in Su57 at medium term. But until that moment arrives, you need foreign customers. And the two only avaiable customers are North Korea and Iran.

I have already explained the political angle which takes priority over just defence economy. Iran has been betrayed by Russia before despite payments in case of MIG-29, MIG-31, SU-24 deal and later in S-300PMU2 saga. I am not even mentioning the betrayal of the nuclear deal.

At the rest I agree with your numbers. But I would include some Kowsars for advance trainers or OCU and Simorgh for medium airlift capacity.

5 Kowsars exist in 8 years and the last one they showed in Kish came with obsolete Saeghe's PESA radar, not its original Grifo-346 copy. Even if they re-new the project and somehow put out a miraculous yield of 12 airframes per year, the delivery of 70 airframes will be completed by 2030. Congratulations, Iran will have a fleet of borderline 4.0 gen light CAP-LIFT/CAS-AT in 2030.

If Trump offers Putin enough of the good stuff like unfreezing the Kremlins funds all over the world, allows Putin to seize the assets of countries that 'stole' from it, like luxury yachts etc., I would be nervous right now if I was Iran.

As you mentioned, Russia has done this to Iran three times already, with a 4th time likely on its doorstep.

For now the biggest gift Russia will get from Trump will be a strategic victory in Ukraine despite making horrible mistakes in the war. Trump is giving Russia this, Iran is not giving Russia anything.

The only possible exception that I see is if these two leaders agree that Russia supply, and continue to supply, 'vanilla' versions of arms to Iran.

This would enable Russia to save face viz-a-viz its current and future arms customers.

BUT, by doing this, the supply of 'vanilla' arms to Iran would likely ignite a rush for modern US arms to be sold all over the region up there. Thus, increased US exports, increased employment, increased funds flowing in, content voters and general populace, and last but not least, increased US control of what purchasers of its arms may or may not do with these.



Yup - you snooze you lose.

Piet.

Iran has enough capable local military-industrial complex to turn "vanilla" arms from Russia into much more capable systems. An example, SU-24, MIG-29 are probably old enough systems now that Russia may allow their transfer to Iran in their "vanilla" form and local industry can probably raise them to ALBM/ALCM firing SU-24MK2 or IADS linked MIG-29M interceptors. Look at F-4 Dowran capabilities matching JH-7 or Kowsar being FCK-1 equivalent no matter how little numbers exist. An IRIAF fully overhauled and armed FMC F-14AM can match SU-35S in air-air role (we can do a comparison). Same can be done to additional airframes of MIGs or Fencers from Russia. A fully locally upgraded fencer fleet with ALBMs/ALCMs means they can do same to Israel what IAF did over Iraqi airspace.

Iranian problem is lack of vision and incentive when it comes to manned combat aviation. These people will rather do a horse and pony show of plastic toys, and models in front of SL to get the $$ out and run away with it. The same can't be said about other branches offcourse where the intent is clear and they are now coming out with global-level products.

ideal would be our decision makers learn that Russia is not our friend and but some money in further developing kowsar and then adopt it

As AT+CAP+CAS+LIFT yes ... they should have done with the fleet by now to produce next gen crop of pilots but I feel the project is done and dusted if Yak numbers increase. Kowsar has become another Saeghe.

Good for a non-AESA radar. It was essentially on the job training. And definitely not something to be consigned to the dust bin of history.

First time I hear of an AESA longer-range version of AWG=9+. Do you have any further info on this. If Iran can fabricate such a longer-range radar, and even if this radar goes down with F-14 retirement proper, its tech should be trickled down to smaller, more manageable, proportions.

If you read my post, I was hypothesizing that if they can make bulk of giant GaN AESA radars at ground and SAIRAN chief was boosting airborne AESAs and we know decent upgradation of AWG-9 to APG-71 status then possibly a APG71-AESA variant can be made for unmanned AWACS for DASN in air. The rise of ALBMs, HGVs, attack drones is making the IADS search n track units more and more vulnerable so cheap but effective UCAV-AWACS is needed which is well within Iranian capabilities.

True about the increasing vulnerability of such UAV's to ever advancing SAM's. And of course the VLR AIM-174B AAM. The point you make about costs and no lives to lose is very valid.

If the search range is 600 KM they can operate within IADS. Besides, being cheap and unmanned, their loss is more tolerable compared to a Billion USD worth of manned AWACS being taken out by an enemy LR-BVR.

Granted.

https://defencepk.com/forums/attachments/img_20250116_105537_557_gs71-jpg.95253/

Lucky missile found new life in new role.

 

[Tijani]

In the Iranian context, it does not matter what happens to Ukrainian borders. What matters is that the current AIPAC-US is deeply sympathetic towards Russia ... the same Russia that started the war, got embroiled in it, and now seems to be coming out of it thanks to Trump. They will eventually re-establish their relations with Trump-US and the entire West where they have huge socio-economic incentives, and Iran has little to offer in comparison in the name of INSTC, Russia won't need Iranian drones or missiles anymore. Russia has nothing to gain from Iran while it has everything to gain from AIPAC-US. Russia technically never approved or sided with Iran in the Iranian clash with Israel-NATO-US-EU in the name of treacherous Sunni Arabs. History kinda repeating itself.

I believe differently. Iran understood very early the fundamentals of the Ukrainian conflict and hedged its bets with Russia. There were plenty of overture sent to Iran to switch support to Ukraine, or at least stay neutral. Trumps willingness to negotiate has nothing to do with sympathies, there's no such feelings involved here. They're surrendering in Ukraine because they lost the war beyond any hope of redemption. The war was lost after the first couple weeks but the West, in it's infinite madness, decided to escalate in show of brinkmanship hoping Russian society would collapse from the economic strain imposed on it. In turn Europe suffered more economically than Russia did.
You're missing the point on how the war started. Russia didn't initiate the conflict. The West did by using Ukraine as proxy. First they instigated the coup that toppled the elected government and brought to power hardcore Nazis. Dare we forget the wicked with of the West Nuland?
That was a direct declaration of war against Russia considering the history of Ukrainian Nazis during WW2 and the atrocities committed on the Russian populace. As if this wasn't enough they invaded the Donbas, which has always been Russian in all but name. Through all this the Russia kept playing the diplomatic game with the West, culminating in the Minsk accords.. And as always the West cared very little for the agreements it signs. More civilians died during the West's Ukraine war against the Russian population in the Donbas than during the whole Russia's SMO. That's saying a lot, considering the West's nonsense about "full-scale war". Ultimately Russia reacted by sending troops into conflict to safeguard it's people and national interest.
For you to then say that Russia started the war is erroneous at best.
Russia will establish relations with the West because of initiative from the West. The Russians never asked nor initiated the severing of relations, the West did. Russia has through this whole period maintained the protocols of civilised diplomacy. It is the collective West that has been acting as the children they are with all their boycotting and foolish name calling. Remember the excrement nonsense that the Russian are not even European? Or that they're mythical Orc creatures from LoR? The West is not run by adults!
Re-establishing normal working relations with the West will change very little in Russo-Iranian cooperation.
To the victor go the spoils and the West lost. The world has moved passed them but they've yet to acknowledge it. Once the articles of surrender have been signed, to officially bring major hostilities to end in Ukraine, then the new world security system will apparent to most.
Economically and security wise the West is in severe trouble. The last vestiges of preeminent Western domination is at its final stages.
There was never any need to Russia to publicity side with Iran. Iranians were not being murdered by the thousands. Iran proper was never in any existential danger. A more proper comparison would a situation akin to the war of Holy Defense and that did not exist during the latest flare up between AoR and the collective West.

Russia has lost 90+ jets in war, they need not only to replace these massive numbers of downed jets but also upgrade the squadrons who previously operated 3rd or 4.0 generation aircrafts since SU-25/24/27 or MIG-29/31 are no longer being built. Their option in 4+ generation is SU-30SM/35S or SU-57 for 5th gen. If Iranian order is indeed 50 x SU-35S then it will be completed by 2028-2030 at earliest.

This only holds true if, and only if, there's no cooperation on TOT. I believe that Iran is getting a deal where it will be able to manufacture the SU-35 inhouse. It takes time to set up the necessary infrastructure for such an undertaking. The real benefit of this is that Iran will able to ably this to its own indigenous projects.

I have already explained the political angle which takes priority over just defence economy. Iran has been betrayed by Russia before despite payments in case of MIG-29, MIG-31, SU-24 deal and later in S-300PMU2 saga. I am not even mentioning the betrayal of the nuclear deal.

We believe differently here. You apparently think that things will go back to the relatively same normalcy that predated the Ukraine conflict. I believe not. Russia's political outlook has fundamentally change for the next generation or two. There's no forgetting nor forgiving the tens, maybe even hundreds, of thousands of killed and maimed young Russians. The nineties period when Russia was weak and subservient isn't a relevant comparison because the situation is fundamentally different.

 

[ToddE]

I believe differently. Iran understood very early the fundamentals of the Ukrainian conflict and hedged its bets with Russia. There were plenty of overture sent to Iran to switch support to Ukraine, or at least stay neutral. Trumps willingness to negotiate has nothing to do with sympathies, there's no such feelings involved here. They're surrendering in Ukraine because they lost the war beyond any hope of redemption. The war was lost after the first couple weeks but the West, in it's infinite madness, decided to escalate in show of brinkmanship hoping Russian society would collapse from the economic strain imposed on it. In turn Europe suffered more economically than Russia did.
You're missing the point on how the war started. Russia didn't initiate the conflict. The West did by using Ukraine as proxy. First they instigated the coup that toppled the elected government and brought to power hardcore Nazis. Dare we forget the wicked with of the West Nuland?
That was a direct declaration of war against Russia considering the history of Ukrainian Nazis during WW2 and the atrocities committed on the Russian populace. As if this wasn't enough they invaded the Donbas, which has always been Russian in all but name. Through all this the Russia kept playing the diplomatic game with the West, culminating in the Minsk accords.. And as always the West cared very little for the agreements it signs. More civilians died during the West's Ukraine war against the Russian population in the Donbas than during the whole Russia's SMO. That's saying a lot, considering the West's nonsense about "full-scale war". Ultimately Russia reacted by sending troops into conflict to safeguard it's people and national interest.
For you to then say that Russia started the war is erroneous at best.
Russia will establish relations with the West because of initiative from the West. The Russians never asked nor initiated the severing of relations, the West did. Russia has through this whole period maintained the protocols of civilised diplomacy. It is the collective West that has been acting as the children they are with all their boycotting and foolish name calling. Remember the excrement nonsense that the Russian are not even European? Or that they're mythical Orc creatures from LoR? The West is not run by adults!
Re-establishing normal working relations with the West will change very little in Russo-Iranian cooperation.
To the victor go the spoils and the West lost. The world has moved passed them but they've yet to acknowledge it. Once the articles of surrender have been signed, to officially bring major hostilities to end in Ukraine, then the new world security system will apparent to most.
Economically and security wise the West is in severe trouble. The last vestiges of preeminent Western domination is at its final stages.
There was never any need to Russia to publicity side with Iran. Iranians were not being murdered by the thousands. Iran proper was never in any existential danger. A more proper comparison would a situation akin to the war of Holy Defense and that did not exist during the latest flare up between AoR and the collective West.

Not sure how all of this connects to the Russian habit of using Iran as a bargaining chip in front of US and EU, and Iran's naivety about it. Russia had ~100 Billion of USD worth of exports to EU pre-war which it naturally wants at all costs post-peace deal to be re-established. Who attacked who for whatever reason is well known and has ZERO connection to how one-sided Russo-Iranian relations have been due to the stupidity of Iranian Mullah leadership that failed to understand that countries look for their own, unlike IRI that wants to fight for others, destroying its own economy in the process. Russia is no exception, they have a MUCH bigger financial incentive to align themselves with West (favoring Trump, 100 Bln USD exports to EU) over Iran. Yeltsin's Russia ditched Iran in the 90s when they halted supplies of weapons even after accepting billion+ USD in cash from Rafsanjani's Iran for MIG-29/31, SU-24 and a bunch of other stuff. Putin's Russia was among the countries in 2008-9 that demanded Iran to stop enrichment, later they ditched the S-300PMU2 deal and Iran had to threaten them with ICJ. They use Iran as a chip when they have to deal with the West and considering how quickly the staunchly anti-Iran AIPAC-Republican US is favoring Russia, Putin will have no reason to misalign Russia with US/EU over Iran once Ukraine war ends. Happened before and will happen again. Iranian leadership failed to see this happening in 2022-23 when Russia first time approached Iran for weapons supply, that was the time for Iran to bargain out as many MIG, Fencer airframes along with A2As from Russia as it could. I dont want to derail the discussion otherwise this has probably happened before with France under Khatami. Other countries keep themselves in such a political position that benefits their economies, defence and citizens, Iranian leadership wants to fight the entire world for Palestinians who on most occasions have attacked Iran.

This only holds true if, and only if, there's no cooperation on TOT. I believe that Iran is getting a deal where it will be able to manufacture the SU-35 inhouse. It takes time to set up the necessary infrastructure for such an undertaking. The real benefit of this is that Iran will able to ably this to its own indigenous projects.

Not a single shred of evidence exists that it will be TOT. The authentic most reports point towards CKD assembly by Russian staff inside Iran (Hamedan Nojeh AB ) just like how Yak-130 arrived. Russia, apart from China, does not offer elaborate TOTs or allow local upgradations of its modern weapons system to its clients unless Russia itself is making $$$ in the process. Fair enough from their perspective. Why has not Iran used MIG-29, SU-34, Kilo-Class Submarines, S-300PMU2 for its own indigenous projects? Iranian fighter designs are F-5 based, aviation upgrades are limited to American origin fighters but not a single screw on MIG-29 or SU-24 have ever been changed inside Iran. Iranian submarines are of DPRK origin designs while Air-defence is a mix of US-Chinese origin domestic designs but we never saw any Iranian tinkering with modern Russian systems.

We believe differently here. You apparently think that things will go back to the relatively same normalcy that predated the Ukraine conflict. I believe not. Russia's political outlook has fundamentally change for the next generation or two. There's no forgetting nor forgiving the tens, maybe even hundreds, of thousands of killed and maimed young Russians. The nineties period when Russia was weak and subservient isn't a relevant comparison because the situation is fundamentally different.

Thats not how countries work. Emotions do not matter, money does and Russian economy in longer terms is still massively dependent upon its relations with west namely EU considering the size of the export. Like I said before, in comparison Iran has nothing to offer to Russia anymore.

 

[mack8]

Just some IRIAF pictures related to the current military exercise.

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[ToddE]

Just some IRIAF pictures related to the current military exercise.

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Thats domestically upgraded Falcon-50 "Saye" Electronic Warfare aircraft of IRIAF along with F-14A. According to key-aero article on Fakour-90, the missiles ARH seeker and ECCM was tested against a Shahed-171 stealth UCAV while Saye were providing hard jamming.

 

[Piet]

Iran has enough capable local military-industrial complex to turn "vanilla" arms from Russia into much more capable systems. An example, SU-24, MIG-29 are probably old enough systems now that Russia may allow their transfer to Iran in their "vanilla" form and local industry can probably raise them to ALBM/ALCM firing SU-24MK2 or IADS linked MIG-29M interceptors. Look at F-4 Dowran capabilities matching JH-7 or Kowsar being FCK-1 equivalent no matter how little numbers exist. An IRIAF fully overhauled and armed FMC F-14AM can match SU-35S in air-air role (we can do a comparison). Same can be done to additional airframes of MIGs or Fencers from Russia. A fully locally upgraded fencer fleet with ALBMs/ALCMs means they can do same to Israel what IAF did over Iraqi airspace.

I think that I had new a/c in mind when the concept of 'vanilla' arms crossed my reasoning. Regarding 2nd hand SU-24, -29's and so forth. These could (should) be upgraded by Russia and Iran at the same time seeing that the sands of time has run out for more vacillating. And even then, something minute can still be slipped in.

If you read my post, I was hypothesizing that if they can make bulk of giant GaN AESA radars at ground and SAIRAN chief was boosting airborne AESAs and we know decent upgradation of AWG-9 to APG-71 status then possibly a APG71-AESA variant can be made for unmanned AWACS for DASN in air.

I cannot recall reading about this, but an upgraded AWG-9 ---> APG-71-ASEA will be a real threat to enemies and a boon to Iranian unmanned AWACS for DASN.

What I do remember is a post where it was claimed that Iran was producing T/RM's.

--- The rise of ALBMs, HGVs, attack drones is making the IADS search n track units more and more vulnerable so cheap but effective UCAV-AWACS is needed which is well within Iranian capabilities.

And also, no one-hit wonders by an enemy putting what must be horrendously expensive Iranian strategic radars, temporarily out of service.

If the search range is 600 KM they can operate within IADS. Besides, being cheap and unmanned, their loss is more tolerable compared to a Billion USD worth of manned AWACS being taken out by an enemy LR-BVR.

Adding to the above, if a APG-71-ASEA can pull down a range of 600km, it still remains a large piece of kit.

Down-sized models of the same could be carried by unmanned vehicles as well as manned combat a/c = fighters.

Lucky missile found new life in new role.

Just so.

Piet