Can Iran Building An F-35 Anytime Soon?

F 35 lightning ii  

And Iran's ambition

Iran’s Aviation Industry (IAI) has accomplishments to boast about despite operating under heavy sanctions for nearly forty years. It has managed to keep once state-of-the-art U.S.-built F-4 Phantom and F-14 Tomcat fighters in operational condition for decades, including nine years of high-intensity aerial warfare with Iraq.

 

IAIO Qaher (“Conqueror”) 313

Russia, which possesses a mature military aviation industry, has basically thrown the towel on its Su-57 fighter program (at least on the short term) because the expenses and technical challenges have proven so prohibitive. Much wealthier countries starting from France, Germany, India, Japan and therefore the UK are only within the early stages of developing their own.

But Tehran would have the world believe that it quietly developed its own stealth jetway back in February 2, 2013, when one was unveiled as part of the Ten-Day Dawn ceremonies attended by then-President Ahmadinejad.

IAIO Qaher (“Conqueror”) 313 stood out as a diminutive franken-plane that would look cool in an action flick. It retained significant design characteristics of the F-5 Freedom Fighter but sported canted vertical stabilizers like an F-22 Raptor, flouncy wings like a 1950s-era MiG-17, drooping wingtips resembling Boeing’s discarded Bird of Prey concept, and bat-like canards—a second set of wings next to the cockpit.

It didn’t, however, appear as if something that would actually fly, here are a number of the key points:

The Cockpit Was Too Small to suit an Average-Height person

Unless that person was a dwarf. The pilot would need to tuck his knees up ahead of him to suit. Likewise, the nose was too small to suit a radar.

Simplistic Cockpit Instruments

One of the pictures depicts a relatively low-tech instrument panel likely taken from a civilian light plane. One of the tells? An airspeed indicator maxing out at 260 knots, which is little over half the speed of a subsonic civilian airliner.

No Jet Exhaust Nozzle

 

IAIO Qaher (“Conqueror”) 313

Nozzles help a jet not melt itself when engaging afterburners. Furthermore, the jet intakes seem too small as well.

No visible weapons bays or sensor apertures.

Stealth jets generally carry weapons in internal bays to maintain a low radar cross-section. But such internal bays, or maybe provisions for external weapons or sensors, were visibly absent. Iran claimed the small Qaher could somehow carry two two-thousand-pound bombs and 6 air-to-air missiles—but the airframe simply didn't have enough space to hold all of them.

 

IAIO Qaher (“Conqueror”) 313

It seemed to be made out of shiny plastic—without tell-tale rivets and screws, and the canopy appeared to be smudgy plexiglass and had no latch.

Iranian state media released a video that supposedly depicted a Qaher in flight. But a look at the footage made clear it had been a less-than-full-scale remote-control replica.

After the outcry, Iranian media clarified that these were, in fact, two different reduced-sized test drones.

Another dramatic photo depicting a Qaher flying against a mountain backdrop appears to possess been produced via the magic of Photoshop.

Notably, the Fars press agency described the new Qaher as a “logistic aircraft” (whatever that means—it’s clearly not a cargo plane) and a “light fighter jet for military and training purposes.” This hints that if Iran ever does build flying Qaher, it'd not be intended for frontline service. Perhaps it could function as a prototype, or a way to check the detection of a quasi-low-observable airframe.

By comparison, Iran’s effort does not seem credible. One should also bear in mind that back in 2003, Iran unveiled an earlier, subsonic fighter called the Shafaq—revealed in 2014 to be a mock-up made from wood.

Certainly, Iran has reasons to want a stealth fighter—it fears an attack by Israel or the United States, some of the most capable air arms on the planet. Furthermore, Iran is competing for regional dominance with multiple Arab states lavishly equipped with fourth and 4.5-generation F-15, F-16, Typhoon and Rafale jet fighters.

However, attempting to develop a working stealth jet from scratch is perhaps the foremost expensive and least practical solution to deal with those challenges. Meanwhile, Tehran’s predilection for fabricating easily disproven evidence of its military capabilities testifies to the revolutionary state’s enduring sense of insecurity.