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Iran training new pilots

The fighter jet, unveiled earlier this year, was discovered to be an F-5 Tiger, the likes of which first flew in 1959. Iran still has some of the incredibly outdated F-5s and F-14s in its inventory from before 1979, when Iran and the US still had a relationship.

This attempted trickery reeks of the same desperation that previously led the Iranian Regime to reveal their supposedly stealth Qaher-313 fighter jet, which according to Joseph Dempsey, a defense and military analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, was nothing more than a failed propaganda stunt, as the advanced aircraft was too small to even lift its pilot off the ground.

The real purpose

But Justin Bronk, an aerial-combat expert at the Royal United Services Institute, reports that the real Kowsar project is merely using the F-5 as a placeholder because the real jet wasn’t ready on time. Apparently, the real jet isn’t a fighter, but a trainer and a light attack plane that could save Iran’s air force.

Bronk advises that the Iranian Regime is not working on new fighter planes, because they are actually training new pilots. Their current batch of pilots is getting older, as they were all trained by the US prior to 1979, which means that the Regime is in danger of losing its air force altogether.

Old Equipment

Bronk said that the state of the Iranian economy, the US sanctions against the country, and the older equipment that they have to use has stopped Iran from delivering the real plane on time, but calls it “impressive” that the outdated planes are still flying in 2018.

He said: “It’s not a bad play. It makes the most of the limited technology options they have.”

However, he does not that these planes would be “hopelessly quaint” against the air force of its Gulf rivals, Israel and Saudi Arabia, and especially the US. Indeed, Iran’s air force wouldn’t stand a chance.

Of course, the reason that the Iranian Regime is facing sanctions and a failing economy is entirely down to the actions of the mullahs. If they hadn’t cheated on the nuclear deal or bankrupted their country with foreign wars, perhaps they would be able to introduce a new stealth plane.

Even if Iran is still training new pilots, that doesn’t mean that their planes will be able to do any damage, so no one should lose sleep over the Iranian air force, but it’s worth increasing the sanctions to prevent them from improving the planes.

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