Iran’s Fighter Jets Stage Show of Power in Air Drills

Iranian Air Force fighter jets practiced electronic war operations during the second stage of their military maneuvers in Iran’s Northwestern provinces.
“Today in addition to continuing exercise of sophisticated operational tactics by several squadrons of different Air Force fighter jets, extensive electronic warfare was also successfully carried out in all frequency bands,” Air Force Lieutenant Commander Brigadier General Hossein Chitforoush, the spokesperson of the drills, said on Sunday.

Chitforoush said that Iran’s two well-known home-made fighter jets, namely Saeqeh (Thunderbolt) and Azarakhsh (Lightening), also carried out their missions and bombed specified targets under full radio silence.

The exercises are scheduled to continue on Sunday night with several squadrons of Iranian jet fighters bombarding fixed and mobile targets in the third phase of the air drills.

Different plane equipments, ammunitions and tactics are due to go under test in the four phases of the exercises codenamed “‘Fadaeeyan-e Harim-e Vellayat III’ .

An array of fighter jets, fighter bombers, cargo and transportation planes, including F-4, F-5, Sukhoi SU-24 fighter-bombers, Mig-29 and the logistic C-130 planes, will be used in the exercises.

Iran has recently made good progress in the air industry and has succeeded in gaining the technical know-how for producing stealth aircraft and drones.

Iran successfully tested a home-made radar-evading UAV with bombing capabilities in 2008. The country’s Defense Industries launched production of Saeqeh and Azarakhsh fighter jets also the same year.