Not long ago, the Americans seemed to want to intercept French foreign trade arms orders, although Indonesia has announced that it will buy 42 Rafale fighters from the French company Dassault, but the two sides have only signed a contract that includes 6 fighter jets, two submarines and two satellites. On the same day, the U.S. State Department announced that it had approved the sale of 36 F-15EX export models to Indonesia, and the numbers seemed to be specially designed for the French. But whether the French win or the Americans get the order, the biggest victims are Russia. Because the Indonesian Air Force was initially optimistic about the Su-35, as early as 2015, Indonesia decided to purchase the Su-35, but later was forced to announce the abandonment of procurement under the threat of Sanctions from the United States.
(Su-35 fighter)
However, the East is not bright and the West is bright, and Russia's Su-35 will reach a new arms sales order. According to CCTV military reports, Russia and Iran will recently sign a large order worth more than $3 billion, including 24 Su-35 fighter jets, 2 sets of S-400 air defense and anti-missile systems, and 1 military satellite without specific use.
The Su-35 is the product of the "flanker" to the extreme, has shown unparalleled maneuverability at many air shows, in addition, the fighter's 117S vector engine gives it extremely powerful fighting ability, snow leopard-E phased array radar can track 30 targets at the same time, and select the most threatening 8 of them to attack. The Su-35 also retains the consistent characteristics of the Soviet-Russian fighter, that is, the range is very long, and it is a very cost-effective product in the arms market in the world today.
It is also very necessary for the Iranian Air Force to add fresh blood, and the absolute main fighter aircraft equipped by the Iranian Air Force is still the product of the business of the United States and the Pahlavi dynasty in the 1970s. At that time, the United States and the Pahlavi dynasty signed a total of nearly 80 contracts for F-14A fighter jets, and about 24 more can fly so far. And because the United States has been paying close attention to Iran's smuggling of parts for the fighter, Iran can only make up for it by dismantling and scrapping F-14A parts, and life is quite difficult.
(Iranian Air Force F14A)
In addition, Iran also "developed" some fighters during the arms embargo, but they were all poor imitations of American F-5E fighters, such as "Kausal", "Lightning 80" and so on, and the output was only pitifully less than 20. Iran also launched a so-called "five generations of stealth fighter" Conqueror 313 a few years ago, which is actually a model aircraft level. With Iran facing increasing external military pressure, they must rapidly upgrade their defense capabilities through military cooperation with Russia.
(Iranian Lightning 80 fighter)
The order is a win-win for Iran and Russia, with Su-35 fighter jets greatly enhancing the Iranian Air Force's ability to compete for air supremacy, ground attacks, and interceptions, while the S-400 air defense system and military satellites can effectively fill Iran's shortcomings in precision guidance and satellite communications. If Iran can open the door to long-term military exchanges with Russia through this deal, the future is quite important for the improvement of its overall defense strength.
(S-400 Air Defense System)
For Russia, this deal can not only help them open up a new market and win a lot of profits, but also further enhance Russia's political influence, after all, after the international community's arms embargo on Iran is completely over, no country has dared to take the lead in the arms trade with Iran. This incident is of considerable positive significance for Russia's future expansion of influence in the Middle East. The only thing Russia needs to worry about is whether Iran can scrape together the $3 billion, if Iran wants to exchange oil and gas for it, it will be a big loss for Russia, after all, Russia itself is a big energy exporter, and the most important thing at home is oil and gas.