Berlusconi

Since you admitted you don’t know much about heliopters, please allow me to make some observations:

The Panha 2091 in the photo has the same flat windows that late model and updated AH-1s have. There is nothing uniquely Iranian about it…US, Japanese, Israeli and other Cobras have it. (I believe US Army tests showed that the curved glass gave off more reflections).

flat panels being uniquely Iranian, no. But the fact remains that Iran received only the curved glass models of the AH-1, and that the Panha is a reversed engineered cobra with modifications done on the window.

Thanks, some of these projects are known even to me. I actually have to give some credit to the Iranians: they succesfully developed a decent aerospace industry from the scratch. Especially the helicpopter business seems promising.

no problem, I would have posted more but the site went down last night. And yes, it’s something that makes them stand out from the rest of their neighbors, even if some of the stuff they make is considered obsolete by western standards.. it’s a start.

But we should not make the mistake and derive from that that the Iranians have F-14 equipped with Phoenix ready to fight. All missiles they have are oudated (missiles have a best-before date). Maybe they increased the life time. But reverse engineering the whole system? I doubt it.

From confirmed kill records, I do believe the last use of the Phoenix to kill was in either 88 or 89.. so that gives us 17 years since then. The picture above (a link) shows a recent F-14 with Phoenix under the belly. The dummy rounds are blue while the real ones are white. It does not necessarily mean its useable of course, but does imply that they still exist.

Same with the AEW aircraft. Using it without Russian spares seems impossible, especially because I doubt that the radar matches the airframe, hence that the radar is downrated. the Russians would never give away their latest AEW aircraft to Iraq.

Thats because the Russians didn’t give an AEW aircraft to Iraq. It’s just an IL-76 using a French radar.. although yes, French spares would be difficult (especially after Chirac’s latest remark).

back to the missiles thing.. I don’t know the status of how far along they are on the Aim-54 reverse engineering, other than that the project and the missle are called Phoenix (yes, makes it much confusing when searching for it).

There is also another project called Project Fatter, which seems to be based on the AIM-9P.

Referreing to this passage:

Hmm, the Iran has 30 Tomcats available. Will their “considerably upgraded” radar make the difference? The same article says:

Let’s always remember that US/alliance forces have the initiative to strike their targets at their time with their weapons of choice. In a battle of equal contenders, this initiative normally gives the decisive advantage. But the “considerably upgraded” radars don’t make it an even match.

Update me on Iran’s domestic projects? All I read is so foggy and unclear that I hardly can believe it.

naturally so as I believe the US forces have better advantages that the Iranians can’t match no matter what they upgrade.

As requested here’s some projects/info i’ve gathered elsewhere:

AEW – Iran has two taken from Iraq, the Adnan (a modified Il-76). Although the Adnan itself was supposedly unimpressive and the Iranians might be modifying one of them.

here is a pic of it in Iraqi colors

ASM – Zoobin, an ASM that seems to be influenced by the Maverick and GBU-8. domestic

Trainers – Dorna (2 seat prop driven training aircraft, domestic).
Fajr 1 (another domestically developed prop trainer, not sure on seating).
Paratsoo – reversed engineered Beech F.33

some pics if you click here

Helicopters – Panha 2091 – reversed engineered AH-1J
note, the different glass frame in comparison to the AH-1

here is a regular Iranian Cobra for comparison

Shabaviz 75 (obviously a reversed engineered Bell helicopter..but since there’s soo many damn Bell helicopters that all look the same and have different designations, I can’t remember what exactly it is enginered from)

Shahed 274

Tanker – 747 tanker modified.
http://myaviation.net/search/photo_search.php?id=00360149&size=large

F-4s- From that site you quoted me from..it is mentioned that they have at least 14 in service (a low number from what they had before). Several did receive the Peace Enforcer upgrade before the revolution. Modified to carry the Kh-58

Saaqeh- appears to be a domestic aircraft derived from the F-5 but with two vertical stabilizers

F-14 – an additional link in regards to making spare parts for them
http://www.mehrnews.com/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=150670
from a post earlier here, an F-14 with phoenix under it. Given the paint job on it, it is recent, at least within the last 6 years

supposedly tested to fire the Sedjil (air to air hawk)

Zafar – made after Iran-Iraq war, but seems that the Iranians did not express too much interest in it.

Missiles –
Fateh-110 – domestic, solid propellent surface to surface missile. Some claim it is based on the Chinese DF-11

Falaq – an air to air missile.. can’t find too much info on this one and will post more later if I find anymore.. not sure if this is the reverse engineered Phoenix either.

others:
news link regard to Iran’s air defense
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=34673&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

some kind of cruise missle
http://img177.echo.cx/img177/2973/cruisemissile2mv.jpg

b-2 is a bit easier to shoot down then f-22 look what happened with the f-117a in serbia and they did not have as much money as iran right now an a airforce like theres b-2 you can shoot down easily. But also the Russians are for sure very keen to give Iran maybe some kind of very high quilty equipment beaucse the Russians would like to look in the B-2 and F-22 just look what happened in Serbia the russians looked inside the F-117a. Plus for cruise missiles Iran can easily purchase a KA-50 that has a anti ship misiles and can carry torpedoes so you can sink a ship like that easily it aint hard but ud need more then just one KA-50 maybe around 4-6.

B-2 and F-117’s operate at different altitudes.

PZL Sokol in Indian(?) markings:

This painting is only for film needs.

could be Irish

The DPW purchase of U.S. ports was interesting. The U.S. lamestream media played up the security issues mainly because they dislike GWB. The politicans who are thinking ahead to the 2006 Nov election cycle, joined in and the public got hysterical. You are aware that the seller was a U.K. firm and that the majority of major U.S. ports are (already) managed (not owned) by foreign companies based in Singapore, PRC,etc. Those deals were all pre 9/11 of course.

actually, a considerable (if not the largest) amount of those opposing the deal were actually other Republicans.

Field 100 MiG-29s versus 100 F-16 and tell me who rules having both air forces AMRAAM and R-77s

The West hardly acknowledges any Iraqi or Serb kill.

sure, one can change the scenarios to benefit the situation.. but in the real world, war is never fair and you will never get 100 vs 100. Hell, most MiG-29 operators don’t even use their MiGs the way the Soviets planned on using them.

I think these are some really nice ideas. A reverse engineered f-14 is clearly more likely that a MiG-31 and if they have a russian radar that would mean they could fire the Adder. That would make the Tomcats really really potent.

I also like the Iran + X factor analogy…

in terms of reverse engineering on the F-14.. I’ve heard differing reports. US gov’t reports from a few years ago put it around 50% (although they did not list what component they were able to reverse engineer).

however from articles in air combat information group, put it at a more optomistic number of 90%.. the 10% being primarily the engine and radar. This article here click here says the Tomcats have been upgraded, both the radar and the phoenix missle.