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

[Persian Gulf]

I know, but when you see their allegiance in politics, it's almost always Russia.
It doesn't matter what Russia does, they will defend Russia. The same goes for the reformists.

this is not true for the ones I know. they don't like America and they are neutral about Russia

 

[ShapurII]

this is not true for the ones I know. they don't like America and they are neutral about Russia

And yet, the conservatives in power do whatever in their power to prove that Russia is the "perfectest" ally ever.

 

[Persian Gulf]

And yet, the conservatives in power do whatever in their power to prove that Russia is the "perfectest" ally ever.

the problem is there are no alternatives so they have no choice but to hope for the best from Russia, which inevitably never works well

 

[ShapurII]

the problem is there are no alternatives so they have no choice but to hope for the best from Russia, which inevitably never works well

China is an alternative, but the best alternative is to rely on your domestic capabilities and fund them, instead of cancelling strategic projects, or underfunding your army.

 

[OldTwilight]

There is no sign of IR changing its course of actions, so nothing would happen ... For IR the war is over ...

 

[Michael]

China is an alternative,

China's door is open to Iran.

But, we lack some trust between each other.
If Iran wants to get something from China, at least it needs to rebuild the trust between the two sides before that.

 

[MH.Yang]

The Iranian government needs to understand that the airplane problem is actually easier to solve. The real challenge is the accumulation of pilots, modern air force tactics and air force culture, among other areas. This will take a long time. Iran needs to reach out not just to China, but also quickly build mutual trust and ties with the PAF.

 

[MH.Yang]

The biggest question now is how long the Iranian regime can remain stable. This conflict shows so many traitors within Iran, which is shocking. Plus, they and Israel have become immortal enemies. Israel will not give up its crazy infiltration. The isolation of Iran by Gulf countries poses a huge risk of destruction and betrayal for any country selling advanced weapons.

When Hamas unleashed the Al-Aqsa Flood, the Iranian leadership should have woken up to the fact that their relationship with Israel had reached the stage of immortality. They should then have quickly taken advantage of Israel's temporary weakness and attacked Israel with all their might instead of engaging in a proxy war. Because as soon as Israel sustains itself past that stage, then Iran will inevitably welcome the war of annihilation initiated by the coalition forces of Israel and the United States. Never mind, don't want to talk about this anymore. Just talking about this makes me want to scold them.

 

[MH.Yang]

I am not talking about some secret that China wants to keep. Each user has his own set of parameters he likes to use. That is his own secret and critical for his mission. China doesn't export some weapons with just fixed configurations. No user would like that.

In another word, it would Iran's own secret and I don't have much confidence in they keeping their own secret.

We should at least try. Think about the dead bodies of those Palestinian children. If China doesn't stop Israel, then who will?

 

[LX1111]

In 3 months arms sale sanctions will be reapplied to Iran for at least 10 years and China/Russia will freeze any contracts and never deliver to Iran

This means Iran has two choice

Make a deal with the US to avoid the snapback trigger, modernize the air force at the same time with the sanctions relief

Or

Don't make a deal and make a device, but at the cost of not having an air force or a North Korea like air force with Su-7 and Mig-17 as the air force backbone

Iran is different from North Korea. In Chinese history, China mobilized its national forces to defend North Korea three times, in 1592, 1894, and 1950, went to war with Japan and the United States.
The relationship between China and North Korea is unbreakable. China can send PLAAF to support North Korea at any time.
But no one will give Iran such a guarantee. If Iran completely abandons its air force, no one will help it, whether it is China or Russia.

 

[MH.Yang]

China offered Iran j10a not j10c

At that time the J-10C was not yet in service and only the J-10A could be sold.

 

[LX1111]

Iranian aerospace industry is older than Turkey for sure, dating back to early 2000s or probably older. We have already reverse-engineered General Electric J85, a turbojet engine and we have produced a few too. We have manufactured a micro-turbofan engine for drones and cruise missiles, even though I doubt it has been mass-produced yet.

However, I don't think that Iran can have a domestic air force anytime soon. By the time Iran masters gen 4.5 fighters, China and the US will have moved on to gen 7, if there will ever be gen 7 fighters to begin with (with the rapid advance of AI).

At the end of the day, I strongly believe that the issue, not only for Iran but for most countries with highly-educated people, is funding and management. If Iran invests 500 billion dollars in a 4.5th fighter, we will succeed. But that figure is more than the nominal GDP of Iran.

Not so much. Based on the mig29, Iran imported KLJ-7A radar and KJ600ECM pod from China, and purchased RD93MA engine from Russia. Iran itself has the production capacity of R73. It imported the PL12 production line ,it was eliminated in china, and imported a small amount of PL15.
This is enough to produce low-cost 4.5 generation fighter jets.
Iranians did not do this. They spent a lot of money on imitating the F5 fighter.

This fighter is useless, it may be the most backward fighter in the entire Middle East
The Iranians are also spending a lot of money to imitate the AIM54, is extremely stupid. Iran now has no more than five F14s that can fly. What is the point of developing missiles for these old aircraft?

 

[MH.Yang]

Look like no one is going to sell us anything in meaningful numbers in short period of time and even adding 40 fighters to our AF would take at least 2 years ... unless china would be willing to overhaul and sell her operational J10c to us while train our experienced pilots in 2-3 month ...

if we are going to buy anything from China , for future, then we should go for J35AE ....

100-150 Su35 and Su30 for heavy weight interceptor and strike package alongside 40-60 J35AE would be enough for our defensive needs ... our missiles force is strong enough for offensive purpose

Such a short time. Who could have done it?

Even if China helps Iran, it will take at least 20 years for Iran to rebuild its air force.

There is no way you can maintain an air force with all 5G fighters, and you will definitely need to start training pilots and corresponding air force culture from 4G fighters before you step into 5G, 6G.

you should be mentally prepared enough that you will most likely have to step into the 6G era in order to gain an advantage over IAF. And you can't just become a 5G,6G air force?

 

[MH.Yang]

There are various reason I ask for JF17 B3 over J10C ,

1- Price, we are short on money that why our government want to make deal with the west to ease sanction and get some money ... (JF17 B3 would be 40-45 million $ per full unit package, while J10c would be 70-80 million $ per unit, remember Im talking about full package), we need 4.5-5 billion $ to get 100 JF17 B3 and addition 1-2 billion $ to get 4-5 KJ500 AWACS and command controller platforms ...

2- Quantity and maintenance, we need at least 100-140 fighter jets with low maintenance and fly cost to cover our sky for 24/7 in span of 2-3 month, 40 J10C are not enough

3- political reason, selling J10C in meaningful number will change the balance of power in Iran favor in region and for sure, so many countries will oppose it and put pressure on China to not sell or just stall delivery which make acquiring J10c in short span of time ( less than 2 years ) very unlikely unless China is willing to take the pressure ...

4- Pilot training, from years ago, we are sending our pilots for some additional training to Pakistan, so if Pakistanis agree, we can use their existing training capabilities to train our pilots and shorten the time for integrating JF17 B3 to our AF ( we need train the ground crew as well )

5- We have active order for 40-60 Su35 , so buying another expensive 4.5th Gen fighter would put so much pressure on our AF which is always short on funds...

6- The era of 4.5th gen fighter would be over in next 5-10 years, so spending so much money on 4.5th gen fighters is insane!! We should go for J10AE , Su-57 or Su-75 if the producers are willing to sell 5th Gen fighter with acceptable condition to us.

Lets be honest , China is not willing to commit to any seriouse military deal with Iran till the JCPOA end and we don't have money for it ...

Iran can buy the J-10C production line. This production line will not be very expensive.

 

[muhammed45]

Not so much. Based on the mig29, Iran imported KLJ-7A radar and KJ600ECM pod from China, and purchased RD93MA engine from Russia. Iran itself has the production capacity of R73. It imported the PL12 production line ,it was eliminated in china, and imported a small amount of PL15.
This is enough to produce low-cost 4.5 generation fighter jets.
Iranians did not do this. They spent a lot of money on imitating the F5 fighter.
View attachment 134511
This fighter is useless, it may be the most backward fighter in the entire Middle East
The Iranians are also spending a lot of money to imitate the AIM54, is extremely stupid. Iran now has no more than five F14s that can fly. What is the point of developing missiles for these old aircraft?
View attachment 134512

China has deep pockets my friend. China is an industrial power. Beside a large manpower can be gathered in shortest possible time. A disciplined workforce that a country like Iran lacks it.

All these reasons point to the fact that comparing China to Iran's production capability is not logical.

Why we first went for copying the F-5 is because its a good platform for developing capable 4th generation aircrafts with an eye on 5th generation. Its a twin engine platform which can be upgraded to F-18-20 class in the future (just bigger and different engine/radar). And with stealth coating, hidden engines equipped with cold gas in the exhaust section, you can make it a stealth jet excluding cruising capability which is out of reach for Iran for a foreseeable future.

It's a hard way with limited budget but not impossible. Till reaching this capability in the local defense industry, we have to rely on aerospace forces backed by air defense network.