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Up-close and personal with Iran’s Air Force: rare insight into pilot’s traditions, procedures, equipment April 19, 2012

Posted by David Cenciotti in Iran.
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An interesting behind the scene video was shot on Apr. 17, when Iran commemorated National Armed Forces Day with a military parade at Tehran.

It shows, Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) pilots before, during and after the flybys providing some interesting details on their traditions, including kissing the Koran before their mission and kissing three times each time other at the end of the sortie; their flight gear (unit patches and flight helmets), and F-4, F-14 and Su-24 hardware.

Unfortunately, no subtitles are available for this documentary.

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Another day, another military parade: Iran celebrates Armed Forces Day April 17, 2012

Posted by David Cenciotti in Iran.
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Just a couple of days after North Korea displayed its military hardware in Pyongyang, during which North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivered his first public televised speech since the failed rocket launch, a new military parade took place in one of world’s most hot places: Iran.

On Apr. 17, Iran commemorated National Armed Forces Day with a ceremony attended by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and several of high-ranking military officials.

According to the Mehr News Agency, thousands goose-stepping soldiers took part to the parade in which some military vehicles and equipment were displayed, including the new generation of the Zolfiqar tank, the Samsam tank, the Borragh personnel carrier, the Naze’at missile launcher, the Misaq 2 missile launcher, the Badr tank transporter, and advanced radar and missile systems.

Several planes attended the “show” as well, including IRIAF F-14s, and Su-24s (performing aerial refueling), even if, to be honest, nothing comparable to the 70 F-15Es launched yesterday by the U.S. Air Force from Seymour Johnson AFB.

If I were to choose between the IRIAF current fighters and the 70 F-15Es of the 4th FW, most probably I’d pick the Strike Eagles.

Image credit: ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images

Addressing the military personnel, Ahmadinejad said:

“Security in the Persian Gulf will be promoted with the participation of regional countries, and the interference of foreigners will bring nothing but insecurity,” he said.

A message to Israel, U.S. and some regional allies, in anticipation of a possible (imminent?) attack on Tehran’s nuclear program.

Image credits: AP Photo/Vahid Salemi and ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images

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Video: Iranian F-14 Tomcats on combat patrol. Unarmed. March 26, 2012

Posted by Richard Clements in Iran.
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Update Mar. 27 09.40 GMT

This short but interesting video (which looks like the result of several footages mixed together) shows one of the most intruguing planes operating with the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force: the F-14 Tomcat.

Along with scenes seemingly excerpted from Top Gun movie, the video (most probably coming from from the Iranian TV series Shoghe Parvaz) shows some AIM-54 Phoenix air-to-air missiles, with several live examples being shown, even if the majority of the F-14s is filmed flying unarmed.

In case of war the IRIAF F-14s could play a (marginal) role perfoming some sortie aimed at disturbing the strike packages and make them waste some fuel.

Noteworthy, as could be noticed on a previously published video, the IRIAF F-14s fly without the IFR (In-Flight Refueling) probe cover because, as explained by Dario Leone, a reader of this blog and an F-14 expert, when they were produced and delivered to Iran they were supposed to be refueled by the U.S. KC-135s whose basket is different (and the cover could get jammed with it) from the ones used by the U.S. Navy S-3s or KA-6s.

For the same reason, during Desert Storm, the U.S. F-14s, that had to be refueled also by Air Force tankers flew without the cover.

There are also images dating back to the early 2000s of U.S. Navy F-14s flying without the cover. According to other sources since the “hatch” blocked quite frequently, especially during low temperature operations, it was removed to prevent it from making air-to-air refueling impossible.

Written with The Aviationist’s Editor David Cenciotti

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How IRIAF F-14 Tomcats could be (effectively) used in combat against Israeli or U.S. planes or drones March 16, 2012

Posted by David Cenciotti in Iran.
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A previous article about the theoretical Israeli strike on Iran with the rendering of an F-15I dropping bombs on Tehran got a lot of attention and sparked debate. Someone criticized it for not being enough realistic, even if I had explained that the image had to be taken as such even if contained one (or more) wrong details. It was not supposed to be accurate that’s why I didn’t ask Al Clark, who designed it, to correct some elements of artist freedom.

In this article, a new Al’s artwork below gives me the opportunity to write something about one of the most famous aircraft in IRIAF inventory: the F-14 Tomcat.

According to “IRIAF 2010“, the book published by Harpia Publishing and written by Tom Cooper, Babak Taghvace and Liam F. Devlin, that I consider one of the most detailed sources about Iran’s Air Force, due to the lack of some spare parts, the fleet of more than 40 Tomcats is roughly divided into “airworthy” and “fully mission capable aircraft”.

The first fly without primary weapon systems and/or no AWG-9 radar; the second can perform QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) and air defense missions.

These aircraft are based at TFB.8 (Tactical Fighter Base 8) Baba’i near Eshahan, in central Iran.

Hence, although IRIAF officials have described the current fleet of F-14s as “completely overhauled” and “improved”, and referred to it a a “new generation of bombers” in the recent past, only a small amount of Tomcats can be used for air defense purposes in spite of the large amount of spare parts that Iran was able to clandestinely collect after the type was retired by the U.S. Navy and the efforts of various domestic companies to produce some specific parts and subsystems.

What is the role the Tomcat could play in a hypothetical war against Israel?

As already explained in the blog post about the possible long range strike on Iran’s nuclear program, IRIAF interceptors, should play “hide and seek” with the enemy forces: they could hide from the incoming packages and try to achieve some kills during the egress phase. They could be effective by simply disturbing the strike packages to let them “feel” the threat and waste some gas.

The Tomcats could somehow be effective against isolated targets, like drones, mainly before or after the first waves of air strikes: even a UAV kill could play a role in the psychological war against Israel.

For sure, radar activation would be reduced to a minimum: during the most intense part of the air campaign their AWG-9 radar would be either jammed (although it was domestically modified or locally upgraded to make it more jamming-resistant) or detected as soon as switched on, with the latter hypothesis implying the risk of interception by enemy fighters.

Obviously, just in case: before the whole thing starts the planes should be dispersed on one of the several Iranian airbases to prevent them from being destroyed on the ground at TFB.8.

Image by Al Clark for The Aviationist

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A draconian long range strike: Israel’s attempt to smash the Iranian nuclear program. March 3, 2012

Posted by David Cenciotti in Iran, Military Aviation.
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There is much debate these days about the ability of Israel to hit Iran’s nuclear program. Some analysts believe that it would be a draconian challenge to launch such a long range attack on the facilities used for the atomic program while others are much more optimistic. To such an extent there’s someone who firmly believes that 25 F-15Is, each carrying a single GBU-28, and about a dozen F-16Is with lighter weapons could be enough to achieve the goal.

I’m among those who think that it is not going to be an walk in the park. The problem is not only to penetrate Tehran’s airspace but execute concurrent air strikes on several ground targets.

There are about 30 nuclear facilities in Iran, six of those are believed to be primary targets for anyone willing to halt the Iranian nuke ambitions.

Unless something really unbelievable happens (as, for instance, a southern circumnavigation or a northern trip with a stopover in Azerbaijan to enter Iran from the Caspian Sea or any other unexpected direction) there are only 3 possible routes to Iran: Northern (via Turkey), Central (via Jordan and Iraq) and Southern (via Saudi Arabia). Both require (more or less) a violation of sovereign airspaces as well as several supporting aircraft. AEW, EW, SEAD and many refueling planes.

The Israeli can almost do everything. But this is not a pre-emptive surprise strike. Unless the IAF is going to perform only a symbolic strike (that would be almost a suicide mission, considered the reaction it would spark) the one in Iran will be an extremely long range mission in which many fortified underground targets will have to be smashed along with other surrounding targets. Not static unprotected targets, but SAM sites, radars, and everything belonging to the Integrated Air Defense System that will try to repel the attacking force.

Unlike previous attacks on Iraq and Syria, that came almost unexpected, Iran is probably on heightnet alert status: with several geographically dispersed targets, the surprise factor would be quickly mitigated and IAF planes would have to deal with anti-aircraft threats and IRIAF fighter planes flying sort-of isolated air defense missions.

Furthermore, few analysts have taken Iran’s military capability into account. Even if the current Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force is mainly flying on vintage American and Russian “hardware” hardly maintained because of the international sanctions, it can still count on about 200 combat planes flown by proud pilots.

The Iranian fighters would not need to destroy many bombers. Disturb them in point-defense missions, let them spend some more fuel and make their long strike missions longer and more risky, would be enough.

Hence, a proper escort must be taken into account.

Drones will mainly provide pre and post-strike ISR (Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance).

Obviously, the scenario changes when/if air superiority is established and subsequent missions can be launched to look after individual targets in a battlefield freed of anti-aircraft threats. But this is something not going to be achieved very fast.

Summing up, if we consider that in 2007 air strike in Syria (isolated target caught by surprise) the Israelis employed ten planes to attack surface targets, I think that in Iran each target will require some 12-15 planes (spares comprised). This means that 60 planes would be called into action to strike 6 priority targets. If some secondary sites should be attacked as well, the armada would be made of several packages for more than 100 planes.

Hence, it would not be an air strike, but a small scale much dangerous air campaign.

That’s the reason why a conventional attack is unlikely.

Actually, as pointed out at the end of 2011, the war on Iran nuke ambition has already begun. A covert war made of less visible weapons: computer viruses, assassinations and mysterious bomb blasts…

F-14s, in-flight emergencies and arrested landings. Top Gun? No, an Iranian TV series February 17, 2012

Posted by David Cenciotti in Iran.
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It is very well known that, more or less one year ago China tried to pass off Top Gun as air force footage but did you know there was also a mini-Top Gun made in Iran?

If not, have a look at the following video.

An IRIAF (Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force) F-14, part of a flight of four, suffers a hydraulic failure and is forced to perform a successful emergency landing using the runway arresting system.

Screenplay aside, the video is extremely interesting as it shows the rare Tehran’s Tomcats, one of those can be seen engaging the cable with the tailhook. Noteworthy, some of the radio comms are in English language (with Persian subtitles).

According to the information provided by the user who uploaded it on Youtube, the footage is from the Iranian TV series Shoghe Parvaz.

Thanks to Al Clark for the heads up.

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That’s a low level strike: Iranian Air Force F-4 Phantom February 9, 2012

Posted by Richard Clements in Iran, Military Aviation.
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This series of photos found on the internet, shows what appears to be an ultra low level attack on a unknown location probably dating back to at least 20 years ago.

The silhouette is clearly that of an Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force F-4 Phantom striking Iraqi forces during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). Although some believe that the images were taken from an RF-4, the interesting thing that stands out from these amazing photos is the extreme low level of the attack.

Even though the images were not taken downtown, generally speaking, flying low level was paramount to prevent being detected and hit by the air defenses protecting Baghdad: after the war, Iranian pilots recalled flying as low as 20 meters above the ground level during their strike missions. To such an extent that power cables on the outskirts or Iraq’s capital town became a significant risk for Tehran’s pilots.

Richard Clements for TheAviationist.com

Image credit: Iranian internet

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Some (rusty) Iranian Mig-29s on display at Tabriz airbase in new images released by IRNA news agency February 5, 2012

Posted by David Cenciotti in Iran.
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IRNA (Islamic Republic News Agency) has just released some quite interesting pictures of an exhibition of IRIAF planes and equipment that took place at Tabriz, in northwest of Iran.

Among the images made public by the news agency, some depict some (quite “rusty”, or at least dirty) Mig-29s, along with F-5Es and “Saeqeh” (Thunder) an indigenously modified version of the American F-5 Tiger, whose twin tails and blue colour are loosely reminiscent of the Blue Angels.

Generally speaking, the flying F-14s and F-4s recently exposed in the Russian Knights pictures taken during the return trip of the team from Bahrain International Air Show seemed to be in better conditions than these Mig-29s: at least one of the Fulcrum on display is unserviceable (it lacks both engines).

Image credit: IRNA news agency

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Russian Sukhoi Su-27s + Iranian F-14s + Iranian F-4s = the most exotic formation ever! January 31, 2012

Posted by David Cenciotti in Iran, Military Aviation.
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Although some pictures of this unbelievable formation have been already published on aviation website, the Russian Knights, Russian Air Force aerobatic display team has released some more images of the weird formation of Russian Su-27s (with the supporting Il-76), IRIAF (Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force) F-14 Tomcats and F-4 Phantoms taken during the ferry flight that took the the team home from the Bahrain International Air Show 2012.

A unique opportunity to see some really “exotic” planes flying in (quite loose) formation over Iran, in a quite tense period.

Image credit: Sergei Shcheglov Russian Knights via http://sergeydolya.livejournal.com/423952.html (visit this site for more pictures)

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Another day, another Iranian drone. Tehran reveals the new “A1″ UAV. January 30, 2012

Posted by Richard Clements in Drones, Iran.
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On Jan. 30, Iran has announced the development of a new UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) called the “A1″. According to the information released so far, the new drone allegedly has a service ceiling of 10,000 feet, an endurance of two hours and can carry up to a 11lbs (5kg) payload. Furthermore, it has an engine running on hi-octane gas/oil mix (2 stroke engine??) with a 2 blade pusher propeller and can be either launched from a ramp attached to the bed of a truck or ship-launched from rocket launchers.

These “features” seem to suggest that the new drone  is another variant of the Ababil indigenous UAV family, which already includes the Ababil-5,  used as a medium range surveillance platform, and the Ababil-T, a short to medium range UCAV with offensive capabilities.

Image credit: PressTV

Press TV website which broke the news also mentions a –B and a –S version but does not disclose what the purposes of these are.

It was an Ababil-T drone, allegedly launched from within Lebanon and sported Hezbollah markings, that was shot down in 2006 by an Israeli Air Force F-16 using a Rafael Python 5, about 5 nautical miles off Israel’s coast.

Ababil-T (credit: IDF)

The launching of the new drone is a further evidence of a blooming indigenous UAV program which has similar beginnings to that of the Israeli UAV program, started many years ago to develop drones for artillery spotting and battlefield overwatch as well as decoys for SAM sites (they are used to personify manned assets and spur a reaction by the SAM site that can be then attacked by other SEAD assets).

Although the significance of Iran’s UAV program remains unclear (especially if we consider the claims about the prodigious performance of some drones that are nothing more than scale models), it’s once again interesting to notice how the Iranian government use the local media to trickle out information on new systems being developed by Tehran.

The Aviationist will monitor further developments as and when they arise.

Written with The Aviationist’s Editor David Cenciotti