When I work out how to do a poll I am going to run one to see what percentage of you believe this will be the “Arjun Fighter Jet” and what percentage really believes this will actually happen. I have almost no faith that Iran can produce anything other than an ineffective, expensive sub standerd jet. Their efforts to keep 1970s era US planes flying is impressive but this does not mean Iran has the industrial base to build a competitive fighter. Nationalism over actual national interest and political meddling in an industrial matter is going to make this the saga of the decade. Seeing that Iran has an almost national policy of interfering in industrial matters and making heavy handed political moves this program is going to keep alot of commentators amused for a long time. Why not just buy Russian and develop sub components or mission systems? Very few countries can afford to develop a competitive jet alone and Iran doesnt have the funding levels required to do so.
Iran to start jet fighter production
(source Press TV)
Iranian made fighter, Azarakhsh. |
Iran’s Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics has described the test flight of the country’s second homemade fighter jet as successful. Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said the fighter jet, Azarakhsh, would reach industrial production and join the country’s air force soon. Azarakhsh, which has been designed and built by Defense Ministry and Hesa Airplane Manufacturing industries’ experts, conducted a successful test flight on Sunday in the central city of Isfahan, where it was built.
Read on here… http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=18667§ionid=351020101
2 responses so far ↓
Henry Kenyon // August 9, 2007 at 4:37 pm
That aircraft look suspiciously like the F-5 (?) Freedom Fighters they inherited from the Shah’s government. Unless that’s an indiginous copy, of course. It would still be woefully obsolete.
benmoores // August 9, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Yeah, you have to wonder why someone would spend a fortune to produce a 1970s era platform. If they feel that they absolutely have to develop an aerospace industry they would be better of mass producing WWII replica aircraft and selling them to private collectors and using the funds to buy modern fighters from Russia.