Iranian Air Force needs to be able to produce 3 from scratch jets, all of which they should be able to reverse-engineer and modernize or get technology from allies in Russia and China.
Simple to produce, reliable, simple to operate, and highly effective. Ground support, air-to-air capabilities, and bomb trucks. If they could reverse engineer the F4 as well that would be a great 4th option to add.
Kowsar -
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MIG 21/Chengdu J7 -
Simple to produce and highly effective. Chinese need to share their upgrade package and it's a legitimate threat. China was producing these brand new until roughly 2015.... They have lighter and stronger airframe, a full glass cockpit, a new double delta wing, 3 Multi functional HUD displays and HOTAS, helmet mounted sights and a radar cross section reducing fuselage. Conformal fuel tanks meanwhile address the range limitations of both the MiG-21 and former J-7 variants, allowing the J-7G to better operate offensively. The fighter was designed in the 2000s, and strongly reflects the sophistication of China's technologies available at the time.
The fighter can reach speeds of Mach 2.2, where the U.S. F-16C is restricted to just Mach 2, and the Chinese platform's formidable maximum altitude of 17.5km far surpasses that of the U.S. light fighter, which is restricted to under 15.5km. The J-7G fighter requires less maintenance, can deploy more air to air missiles, and ultimately remains in many ways superior to its American counterpart
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SU-22/SU-17
Also simple to produce and highly effective bomb truck. IRGC already developed weapons systems, smart bombs, and glide bomb kits for the SU-22.
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