"Iran's Air Forces: Struggling to Maintain Readiness"
- From: "Mike" <yard22192@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 30 Dec 2005 09:47:42 -0800
Iran's Air Forces: Struggling to Maintain Readiness.
Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=2422
PolicyWatch #1066
Iran's Air Forces: Struggling to Maintain Readiness
By Fariborz Haghshenass
December 22, 2005
Recent events, including the launch of Iran's first space imaging
satellite, the announcement that Russia is selling Iran twenty-nine
Tor-M1 (SA-15 Gauntlet) mobile short-range surface-to-air missile
systems for $700 million, and the crash of an air force C-130 transport
plane into an apartment block in Tehran, have focused attention on
Iran's evolving air and aerospace power capabilities, as well as on
Iran's longstanding problems in maintaining its aging fleet of
military and civilian aircraft.
A Force Divided
Iran's air forces are divided between the Islamic Republic of Iran
Air Force (IRIAF) and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Air Force
(IRGCAF).
The IRIAF is by far the larger and more capable service. Its main role
is to defend Iran against foreign enemies; in the event of invasion,
this might include long-range offensive missions. To this end, it
operates some two hundred and twenty combat aircraft (F-14A Tomcats,
F-4D/E Phantoms, F-5E/F Tigers, Su-24MKs, MiG-29A/UBs, Mirage F-1EQs,
and F-7Ns) at various states of readiness; around fifteen
reconnaissance aircraft (RF-4Es and RF-5As); at least one hundred
training aircraft (F-5B Simorghs, FT-7s, PC-7/S-68s, and F-33
Bonanza/Parastoos); some forty-five transport/tanker aircraft (Boeing
707s and 747s, C-130E/H Hercules, and Fokker F27 Friendships); around
thirty-five helicopters used for search and rescue and transport; and
four P-3F Orions for maritime surveillance of the Persian Gulf and the
Gulf of Oman. The IRIAF also operates a unit equipped with the Zelzal
surface-to-surface missile, which has a range of 300 kilometers (the
IRGC also deploys Zelzal missiles).
The IRGCAF provides close air support (CAS) and lift capabilities for
the IRGC's rapid reaction units. The backbone of the IRGCAF consists
of ten Su-25 Frogfoot attack aircraft (including seven flown from Iraq
to Iran during the 1991 Gulf War, kept airworthy with the help of
Georgian technicians) and around forty EMB-312 Tucanos-its main CAS
aircraft. The IRGCAF also maintains thirty Y-12 and Dassault Falcon 20
light transports, as well as MFI-17 Mushaqs and Super Mushaqs trainers
and locally built Ababil and Mohajer reconnaissance unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs).
The IRGCAF also operates a sizeable rotary-wing force consisting of
around twenty Mi-171Sh helicopters for transport and armed assault
roles, and a large transport force out of Shiraz, equipped with around
fifteen ex-Iraqi Il-76s (originally operated by the IRIAF) and twelve
An-74T-200 transports. Due to its internal security function, the IRGC
puts great importance on rapid deployment and airborne operations and
regularly practices the airborne insertion of troops and equipment over
relatively long ranges.
Finally, the IRGCAF operates several hundred short- and medium-range
mobile ballistic missiles, including the Shahab-3/3B with a range of up
to 2,000 kilometers, which is the mainstay of Iran's strategic
deterrent. If Iran ever produces nuclear weapons, the IRGCAF will
likely control them.
Institutional Rivalries and Tensions
Rivalries between the IRIAF and the IRGCAF during the early stages of
the Iran-Iraq War precluded effective cooperation between the two air
services. The war taught the IRGC commanders that they needed to be
able to operate independently, which required organizing their ranks
into ground, air, and naval arms like the regular armed forces. As a
result, in 1986 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered the creation of
three separate branches of the IRGC, including an air force. Not
surprisingly, the new service lacked the necessary technical expertise,
and the ruling clerics instructed it to pass its first "advanced"
fighter aircraft, Chinese Chengdu F-7s, on to the IRIAF. Since then,
the IRIAF and the IRGCAF have had a tense relationship. They are not
known ever to have held a single joint exercise; it is therefore
unclear whether they could operate together effectively in the event of
a crisis.
Despite its current status as junior partner, the IRGCAF could
eventually supplant the IRIAF as the dominant air service as a result
of its relatively generous funding, its active recruitment of the best
graduates from technical degree granting programs, and the rising
influence of IRGC-affiliated politicians, such as President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad. In contrast, the IRIAF has been struggling to compensate
for the loss of growing numbers of experienced technical personnel and
aircrews to retirement; it has responded by pooling its existing
technicians into centralized task forces. In the early days after the
Islamic Revolution, it failed to create the training infrastructure
needed to grow a new generation of technical specialists-a problem
only partly rectified by the creation of Sattari Air University
following the war with Iraq. In light of these problems, it is not
inconceivable that Iran's two air arms might eventually merge in
order to create a leaner, more efficient, and more effective
organization better able to deal with future challenges.
Aviation Industry
The Islamic revolution resulted in the departure of more than 40,000
American military advisors from Iran. In March 1979 the U.S. government
banned any further foreign military sales or transfers to Iran, and by
November 1979 the U.S. government officially suspended all licenses for
export to that country. Compounding Iran's problems, Iraq invaded in
September 1980.
Sanctions forced Iran toward self-sufficiency in operating,
maintaining, repairing, and modifying its existing American-built
systems. The IRIAF was at the forefront of these efforts, as it had
been the military branch most dependent on American assistance.
The IRIAF initially decided to produce aircraft spare parts for its own
use. Teams of experts established relationships with local universities
and technical schools, and by the final stages of the Iran-Iraq War,
the IRIAF's Self-Sufficiency Jihad directorate (formerly the
Industrial Research Unit) had set up depot-level maintenance shops in
several air bases around the country. These shops were responsible for
repairing systems worn out or damaged by the war.
While doing depot-level maintenance and repair, IRIAF experts drew up
blueprints for aircraft parts, so that they might be
reverse-engineered, using methods very similar to those used by China.
A close relationship developed between the military-industrial
complexes of the two countries. Many Western systems were shared with
Beijing, which in turn helped Iran set up production lines for the
local manufacture of these parts.
Today, Iran's aviation industries produce flight avionics and
communications gear, two types of engines, airframes, in-flight
refueling gear, and flight simulators. In addition, the IRIAF has
produced a variety of ordnance, including both "dumb" (unguided)
and "smart" (guided) bombs and air-to-air, air-to-ground, and
surface-to-air missiles, including the Fatter air-to-air missile (a
Sidewinder lookalike), the Sedjil (an air-to-air version of the Hawk
surface-to-air missile), the AGM-379/20 Zoobin, the GBU-67/B Qadr, and
the Sattar laser-guided air-to-ground missile.
The IRIAF has also begun producing aircraft. Recent examples include
the Tazarve jet-trainer and the Saegheh fighter (the latter is based on
the F-5E, but has a twin vertical tail configuration to improve takeoff
and maneuvering performance). Both aircraft remain in the prototype
stage, and Iranian industry still has a ways to go to establish a
viable design and production base.
As for the IRGCAF, it has improved its technical base by concentrating
most of its capability in a semicorporate entity, the Pars Aviation
Services Company, which maintains the IRGCAF's own combat and
transport fleet and provides services to local airlines that operate
seventeen Tupolev Tu-154 passenger planes. Yet despite significant
strides in this area, Iran continues to experience problems maintaining
its aging fleet of military and civilian aircraft, a fact that has
contributed to a number of major aviation disasters in the past decade.
Current Trends
Iran is the only country in the region that does not receive ongoing
support from the original manufacturers of its weapons systems. Until
very recently, Russia had not been deeply involved in the maintenance
of Iran's Eastern bloc weapon systems. Moreover, as a result of U.S.
pressure, Russia has refused to provide Iran with newer combat aircraft
beyond those ordered in the late 1980s and early 1990s, though Russia
recently agreed to upgrade and modernize the avionics and weapons
systems in Iran's existing fleet of MiG-29 and Su-24 aircraft. As far
as new purchases are concerned, Iran has largely had to settle for
semi-obsolescent designs from China.
Nonetheless, the Iranian air and air defense forces can count on the
advantage conferred by strategic depth and a modest domestic
military-industrial capacity, which has enabled Iran to keep aloft an
aging aircraft fleet in the face of wars and sanctions.
Iran's senior military leaders know that its air forces would not be
able to resist an invasion by a major power such as the United States.
As a result, Iran has not focused on creating a large military, but
rather has emphasized making the most of its limited capabilities by
developing the abilities to conduct continuous, day and night
operations through the acquisition of night vision equipment; to wage
asymmetrical warfare by creating a large popular militia (the Basij)
and sea denial capabilities; and to strike even its most distant
enemies by acquiring reconnaissance satellites, high altitude
reconnaissance and strike UAVs, and short- and medium-range ballistic
missile systems.
Fariborz Haghshenass is an expert on the Iranian military.
.
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