Possible candidates for Iran Air force modernization

davidsuzuki256

New Member
The Iranian Airforce (IRIAF) appears to require a modernization as most of their aircraft was acquired from the late 70s and early 80s. They certainly appear to be self sufficient in reverse engineering these american and european combat aircraft to production of their own variants: Saeqeh and Azarakhsh and recently the F-313 stealth fighter, which has yet to be shown to be actually capable of flying. However in comparison to the airforce of its neighbors, Iran appears to be lacking modern combat aircraft:

UAE: F-16 Block E/F
Saudi Arabia: F-15S, Eurofighter Typhoons, Tornado
USAF Persian Gulf fleet: F-22A, F/A-18, F-35
Turkey: F-16 C/D
Pakistan: F-16

Due to the political tension it certainly is difficult for any country trying to sell modern combat aircraft to Iran. The question is how will Iran deal with the increasing air power of its neighbors. How likely is it that Iran will acquire modern Russian (Su-35), French (Rafael) fighter jets in an attempt to modernize the fleets? Or rather will the focus be on reverse engineering and coming up with their own variants??
 

Yama

New Member
Really I doubt any major nation is going to sell hi-performance combat aircraft to Iran anytime soon. Nuclear embargo situation is still too volatile and there are sanctions in place. Even with Pakistan, Iranian relations are complicated, and JF-17 might not be suitable for Iranian needs.
 

Feanor

Super Moderator
Staff member
They're likely to buy the Su-30SM once the embargo ends. The Su-30SME version was presented fairly recently and the Iranians were quite interested. It's a relatively inexpensive aircraft, after the massive production run for the Indians and the continuing VVS and AVMF buy.
 
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