Rouhani attends Defense Industries Exhibition in Tehran

 

Above President Rouhani inspects Iran's Karrar UCAV (photo: Fars) 

According to Fars News Agency:

Iran displayed its advanced home-made combat drone, Karrar, in camouflage color and armed with anti-aircraft missiles in an Exhibition in Tehran on Saturday.

Karrar was displayed during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to the Defense Industries Exhibition today.

Karrar is capable of carrying a military payload of 500 kilograms to carry out bombing missions against ground targets. It is also capable of flying long distances at very high speed.

The drone has a flying range of 1,000 kilometers and a top speed of 900 kilometers per hour.

There seems to be something of a defense-related media blitz taking place from Iran following the recent U.S. inclusion of military subjects (ballistic missiles) into the ongoing nuclear talks. Possibly related to that response or offering another explanation: this may be an attempt by Iran's executive branch to demonstrate toughness on matters of defense, in an effort to subdue hawkish detractors of its outreach attempts toward the West.

Iranian Defense Budget Not Sufficient Given Current Foreign Threats - Commander

Iran’s Deputy Commander of the Iranian Armed Forces Brig. Gen. Mohammad Hossein Dadras said Iranian defense budget is not sufficient given the current foreign threats to the country.

“Among 16 countries in our region, Iran ranks 15 in terms of its defense budget,” Gen. Dadras said. He added, however, that the country's military capabilities are still acceptable. (Mehr News Agency, 5 July)

Fars News Agency reported on 12 May that the Majlis, Iranian parliament, had approved $5 billion for national defense annual budget.

File photo: The production facility of Iranian UCAV, Karrar (IRNA)

Iran Military Unveils Updated Zolfaqar Tank

Iran has unveiled the updated versions of Zolfaghar tank. Iranian military reported that the fire control system and the stabilizer of Zolfaghar have been upgraded.

Zolfaghar has a distinctive steel-welded turret and is operated by a crew of three. The tank is armed with a 125mm smoothbore 2A46 gun, which is fitted with a fume extractor. Its secondary armament consists of a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun and a 12.7mm machine gun, Iranian news agencies reported.

Photo credit: Iran’s Zolfaghar Tank on display in Tehran. 4 February 2103 (Fars and Mehr news agencies)

Iran Unveils New Fighter Jet: Qaher-313

A Mock-Up Displayed in Tehran

Iran today unveiled the mock-up of a domestically built fighter jet that can reportedly evade radar. The single-seat Qaher-313 (F-313) can combat both other aircraft and ground targets, Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported. The government has not announced if any flight tests has been conducted on an actual prototype model, and when the new fighter will go into full production. No technical specifications of the aircraft has also been released.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hailed the manufacturing of Qaher-313 as manifestation of the country’s growing self-reliance in defense industry. In a ceremony broadcast on state TV, Ahmadinejad said the Qaher-313 (“Dominant-313”) shows Iran's will to “conquer scientific peaks.”

“Qaher-313 is a fully indigenous aircraft designed and built by our aerospace experts. This is a radar-evading plane that can fly at low altitude, carry weapons, engage enemy aircrafts and land at short airstrips,” said Iran’s Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi said. (IRNA, 2 February)

Iran's English-language state Press TV claimed Qaher was similar to the American-made F/A-18, an advanced fighter capable of dogfighting as well as penetrating enemy air defenses to strike ground targets.

UPDATE: The state TV just released a video showing the aircraft in flight. Please click here.

Photo credit: Qaher-313 (Hossein Zohrevand/Fars News Agency)

Iran Launches Production of Carbon Fiber

Iran's Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi (center) during the launch of the production line of carbon fiber. 27 August 2011. IRNA

Carbon fiber production line. 27 August 2011. IRNA

Iran has launched production of carbon fiber, a strategic material used in defense systems as well as civil engineering. The material is under UN embargo because of its potential use in the country’s nuclear program [IRNA, 27 August].

Iran's Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi told reporters during the inauguration ceremony of the country’s carbon fiber production line that all stages of the production and launch of the material were domestically run in spite of UN sanctions on the transfer of technology to Iran.

Vahidi said that carbon fiber is used in production of nozzle heat shields, lightweight composite bodies of motors in solid-fuel missiles, wings and body of various types of fighter jets and civilian planes, as well as the body of light weapons.

“UN sanctions had caused a bottleneck in Iran's production of advanced and smart defense systems," Gen. Vahidi said. He added that Iran “has mastered the entire process of carbon fiber production.”

Carbon fiber has high flexibility, high strength, low weight and high tolerance for heat. Its production is extremely complex. Iran uses carbon fiber for more advanced centrifuges, which spin uranium gas to produce enriched uranium.

Alexander Wilner fails to accurately 'see' Iranian views

Another CSIS study lacking in empathetic perspective

By Mark Pyruz

CSIS has recently published a new monograph by Alexander Wilner titled U.S. and Iranian Strategic Competition: Iranian Views of How Iran's Asymmetric Warfare Developments Affect Competition with the US and the Gulf, Sept. 2010 - Feb. 2011 Much of what Mr. Wilner bases his study on pertains to Western press clippings and incidental quotes of Iranian military leaders taken piecemeal or not in appropriate context; that is to say without a more accurate rendering of empathetic perspective for Iran's very real defense requirements.

First of all, the common denominator of conflict in Iran's neighborhood is not Iran itself; rather it is the US and its allies in the Persian Gulf. For example, those are not Iranian military troops that invaded and occupied neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan; rather they are American. So too, in Bahrain it is not the Iranian military that has invaded and physically intervened in the neighboring island family-run kingdom; rather it is Saudi Arabia. And yet Wilner accuses Iran of "meddling."

Mr. Wilner appears to believe that an asymmetric approach to defense is inherently a negative reaction predicated entirely upon weakness. He seems to believe that all nations are like the U.S.: given to the opportunity of taking such extreme measures of financial borrowing from external sources to purchase ever more superfluous and fantastically expensive weapons systems, in order to project itself globally through self-aggrandizing applications of hard power, wherever and whenever the caprices of its leadership should lend itself toward. That, or be a client state such as Israel, which relies on a more localized rendering of this hard policy lust based upon the same fantastic debt heaped upon current and future generations of ordinary American taxpayers, More sensible countries do not engage in such extravagant pursuits. And some, such as the Islamic Republic of Iran, rely upon the potential of soft power as well as the far more frugal deterrent potential of asymmetric warfare developments.

Personally, it is always with a sense of wonder that I view so many of these works by Western analysts, incapable as they are of actual empathy for the “threat” studies they are attempting to construct.

'Sanctions will not undermine Iran's defense': Defense Minister

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi says the UN Security Council sanctions targeting Iran's defense sphere will not undermine the Islamic Republic's military might.

He noted that the earlier sanctions against Iran all failed to undermine the "solid will of the Iranian nation."

"In the recent resolution, arrogant powers banned weapons sales to Iran, but we do not need their weapons and we can even export such weapons," Fars news agency quoted Vahidi as saying on Thursday.

"Iran is self-sufficient in making and mass-producing artillery, tanks, helicopters and warships," the defense minister noted.

Iran Defense Minister in Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Vahidi disembarks from an IRIAF Dassault Falcon 50EX

Iran Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi arrived in Dushanbe, for talks with Tajikistan Defense Minister General Shir-Ali Kheirollahev. Signing is planned of a memorandum of understanding on defense.

"Iran and Tajikistan have shared histories, shared languages and shared cultures, based on which we enjoy very good comprehensive relations in defense, political, economic and cultural fields" stated Defense Minister Vahidi, upon his arrival.

Photo: Vahid Reza Alaei at Fars News Agency