"Military Sub-Plane" by Ivan the Great
According to the Iranian news agency on September 4, The commander of the Iranian Air Force, General Hamid Wahdi, recently announced to the outside world that the work of negotiating the purchase of Russian-made Su-35S fighter jets has been included in the agenda. General Wahdi pointed out that the Iranian Air Force is not considering a model such as the Su-30SM, but a "real 4++", that is, a Su-35S fighter.
However, General Wahdi also pointed out that the decision to purchase Su-35S fighter jets also depends on the attitude of the Iranian General Staff and even the Iranian Army. Still, it is widely believed that General Wahdi's statement is seen as a sign that the Iranian Air Force is about to get a Su-35S fighter soon.
Iran has been rumored to have bought the Su-35 for a long time
After all, on the one hand, the Iranian Air Force has long been rumored to have received Su-35S fighter jets. As early as 2018, it was rumored that after the appearance of the Russian Su-35SE fighter made for Egypt in 2020, it was once considered To be Iranian; By October 2021, General Mohammad Bagheri, chief of the general staff of the Iranian army, publicly announced to the outside world after his visit to Moscow that cooperation between the Iranian army and Russia in equipment "will expand dramatically." It can be said that the Iranian Air Force is about to buy Su-35S fighter jets, and now the "first voice" finally has the following.
Iranian Gaza (Gaza) drone
On the other hand, at present, Iran and Russia are in the field of military cooperation. It is said that some time ago Iran delivered a batch of Tsatta integrated drones to Russia, including many high-end models such as "Mohaj-6" and "Gaza"; Russia also happens to have a batch of Su-35SE in stock, which the Egyptian Air Force signed a contract in 2018 to order, but in 2020 was yellowed by the United States with the so-called "Sanctions against American Enemies Act".
Su-35 that could not be sold because of the US "sanctions act"
If Iran needs it, the two sides can basically achieve mutual "hot air transfer". Taken into account, if the Iranian Air Force decides to get the Su-35S and Russia and Iran have negotiated, we may see the Su-35S fighter flying into the Persian Gulf and joining the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force sequence at an unprecedented speed.
The end of Iran's "big cat era"?
For the Su-35S fighter that the Iranian Air Force is about to get, it is estimated that most people are a little expectant, and a little lost, and the loss is lost in the last "Tomcat" may be about to withdraw from the stage of history. For many "cat parties" to talk about the "tomcats" of the Iranian Air Force can be described as their last spiritual sustenance, without this last "tomcat" I don't know how many people are still a little bit acceptable at once.
In fact, in terms of technical performance, the "Tomcat" fighter of the Iranian Air Force has lagged behind as early as the beginning of this century, whether it is the technical performance of a single aircraft, the performance of the aviation weapons equipped, or the overall operation level of the fleet, it is difficult to meet the needs of the Iranian Air Force:
In the movie "Top Gun 2", the F-14 is spat on the old avionics
In terms of technical performance of the single aircraft, the "Tomcat" of the Iranian Air Force has undergone several rounds of overhauls, and even once upgraded the avionics system using a civilian version of the fire control computer. However, in the case that the fire control radar has not been greatly improved, the upgrade implemented for a small number of subsystem components can only be said to have a relatively limited effect. No matter how much the performance of the F-14A "Tomcat" of the Iranian Air Force is improved, it is estimated that it is comparable to the earlier model of the F-15C;
In the movie "Top Gun 2", the F-14 missile is evaded by the Su-57 maneuver
In terms of aviation weapons performance, Iran's 284 AIM-54A "undead bird" missiles received by the end of 1978 were launched in the Iran-Iraq War with one or two hundred, and only a few dozen components such as the estimated internal thermal battery have long expired. In order to ensure that the "Tomcat" has air-to-air missiles available, Iran has also fought hard, such as the "Thought-90" research and development project launched around 2010, which is an attempt to "reproduce" the "undead bird" missile.
AIM-54 Undead Bird air-to-air missile
However, the implementation of the project is unclear, and even if the reproduction is successful, the production estimate is not enough. Therefore, this batch of "Tomcat" fighters of the Iranian Air Force is also a problem in aviation weapons.
The direct consequence of the problem of single-aircraft performance and aviation weapons is that the overall size and proper equipment rate of Iran's F-14A "Tomcat" fleet are not high. Iran received a total of 79 F-14As in 1978, but so far it is estimated that only about 20 are really usable.
On June 18, 2022, an F-14A fighter of the Iranian Air Force also crashed in Isfahan due to technical failures, and the flight catapult escaped, and the crash of the F-14A further aggravated the already less wealthy Iranian Air Force "Tomcat" fleet. From a pragmatic point of view, it is imperative for the Iranian Air Force to update the opponent's "Tomcat" fighter jet and replace it with other more advanced models.
Why might Iran choose the Su-35?
And this little expectation, in fact, the combat effectiveness of the Iranian Air Force is still quite strong, mainly because it is one of the few Us air forces in the Middle East who have taught it by hand, and have indeed learned things and participated in a certain scale of actual combat, which is far from being comparable to the Saudi Arabian dog who only buys equipment and does not understand anything else.
After all, the Iranian Air Force really fought a large-scale air war with Saddam's air force in the Iran-Iraq War. At present, the reason why the Iranian Air Force does not have a strong sense of presence in the region is also to a large extent constrained by the fact that the air force equipment is too backward, and the supporting aviation weapons and air situational awareness system are too backward. If you think about it, let the F-14A and F-4E fight the Israeli F-16I or even the F-35I, I think you are clearly embarrassing my tomcat.
After the Iranian Air Force gets the Su-35S fighter, if it can bring some good missiles, such as a new generation of anti-radiation missiles, long-range surface-to-ground missiles, and even Russia's newly equipped force of the outer zone of Glonass/INS guided munitions. Perhaps, the Iranian air force can do more in the Middle East, at least to limit the activities of the Israeli air force in the Syrian airspace.
The Iranian Air Force here may soon be "happy" Su-35S, and it is estimated that domestic military fans will ask the famous question again: Why not buy our J-10CE? After all, the technical performance of our J-10CE fighter is also good, and compared with the Su-35S fighter in fire control radar, avionics and reactance equipment, and air-to-air missiles, it has the advantages of large radar situational awareness range, full avionics system function, more advanced reactor equipment, and large aviation weapon strike range.
Why is it that the Iranian Air Force has always favored the Russian-made twin-engine heavy fighter, that is, it is not interested in the J-10CE fighter we have made, and it has never seen the procurement? In fact, the Iranian Air Force does not buy J-10CE fighters, the reasons should be multifaceted, Ivan the Great feels that there are at least two main factors:
First, the Tactical Needs of the Iranian Air Force itself, Iran does not look at us as a medium-sized country, people have a real "great power dream" in geopolitics. The main manifestation of this is the current "Shiite Arc", which theoretically stretches from the Afghan border to The Datartus and the Mediterranean Seashore, with a length of more than 2,000 kilometers, covering the territory of the ancient Persian Empire.
Israeli Air Force F-35I
Not to mention that the Iranian Air Force still has the hidden need to confront the Israeli Air Force, which requires that the main fighter model equipped by the Iranian Air Force must have a long lag time, large range performance, and preferably a strong multi-purpose performance. The only option for this is a twin-engine heavy fighter, which is why the Iranian Air Force has always favored Russian-made twin-engine heavy battles, but is not interested in our J-10 series.
Second, how does the Iranian Air Force say it, there is always a little bit of "feeling" in it, mainly with American equipment to use a little bit of a trick, not a twin-engine fighter it is a bit unobtrusive. If you look at the main fighters of the Iranian Air Force, the F-4E equipped by the Iranian Air Force first is a twin-engine heavy fighter, and then the F-14A is a twin-engine heavy fighter, and even the F-5E used to beat the drum and the MiG-29 used for making-up are twin-engine fighters. Without the MiG-29, the Pahlavi dynasty would have preferred the F/A-18C/D fighter to match the F-14A.
From here, it can be seen that the Iranian Air Force is a real "twin-engine party", no matter what fighter you use, the double-engine is my request anyway. Unfortunately, whether it is the J-10CE or the FC-1 series fighters, they are single-engine fighters, and in the eyes of the picky Iranian Air Force, they are actually shorter at the beginning. What's more, we also mentioned before that Iran has some prejudices about the military equipment made by China.
It was mainly caused by the poor performance of the F-7M sold by China to Iran and the bad impression left on the Iranian Air Force. Combining these factors, the Iranian Air Force is not very interested in Chinese-made tactical aircraft, which is actually not a surprise.
Of course, many of these things are not absolute, after all, from the iranian air force's previous generations of fighter equipment principles, basically implement the principle of "high and low matching": the first generation of F-4E with F-5E, the second generation of F-14A was originally prepared to match F/A-18C/D, the result of F/A-18C/D ultimately failed to make the trip. Now the Iranian Air Force to start the Su-35S fighter, in fact, is also a relatively high-end fighter, Iran is likely to buy a number of medium fighters to match the Su-35S fighter.
FC-1 Dragon product model at the air show
And this medium fighter, Russia's MiG-35 fighter can choose from, and our J-10CE fighter, even the FC-1 Block3 fighter, can also be included in the option. What's more, after the Iranian Air Force has acquired advanced fighters, it is likely to buy some advanced trainers and combat trainers, which is also our opportunity.
The Su-35 demonstrated maneuverability
In short, as Iran's entry into the Su-35S fighter becomes clearer, the overall equipment rearmament plan of the Iranian Air Force should be opened. Of course, we must be prepared for this, and maybe one day we will see Chinese-made fighter jets flying in the skies of Iran.