Iran Armed Forces take delivery of optimally overhauled military aircraft

The optimized arrivals on Monday included as many as nine military aircraft, including heavy-lift transport planes, 10 helicopters, and dozens of overhauled engines.

The equipment was handed over to the Armed Forces for pending application by the Army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC). The delivery took place during a ceremony joined by Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami as well as the commanders of the Army Air Force and Army Aviation, Brigadier Generals Aziz Nasirzadeh and Yousef Ghorbani, the Defense Ministry reported on Monday.

‘Iran frustrated enemy’s maximum pressure’

Hatami hailed that the dynamic nature of the country’s defense industry indicated that it had managed to defeat the enemy’s “maximum pressure” policy.

He was referring to the United States’ political approach towards the Islamic Republic under former American president Donald Trump that has been kept up during his successor Joe Biden and followed closely by Washington’s allies.

The enemy tried to target Iran with the dual strategies of sanctioning the country and preventing it from buying military equipment, Hatami said. However, the Islamic Republic successfully confronted the campaign using the three counterstrategies of self-reliance, optimization of its defensive and security equipment, and manufacturing of various new indigenous hardware, he said.https://if-cdn.com/vWBpQk0?v=1&app=1

The official identified the overhauled military aircraft as F-4, F-14, Fokker F-27 Friendship, and Mirage planes, and said the transport planes were of the 704, 707, and the C-130 makes.

Enhancement of the aircraft, he noted, “reinforces the Armed Forces’ aerial combat squadron.”

The overhauled choppers are capable of carrying out various combat, security, and rescue operations, the defense chief noted, and said the optimized engines comprised turbojet, turbofan, and turboshaft types.

Hatami noted how the Islamic Republic’s defense industries have been experiencing sanctions since the 1979 victory of the country’s Islamic Revolution.

The Defense Ministry has been battling the coercive measures by manufacturing different military equipment in line with each period’s requirements on the one hand, and overhauling and redesigning its available hardware on the other, he said, describing the latter approach as “an economic and safe pathway towards levelling up the Armed Forces defensive capability.”

“By God’s grace, we put these adversities behind us and are today in possession of technology in our defense industry,” said the defense minister.

‘Iran capable of producing various jet engines’

Addressing an earlier event on Sunday, the Army Air Force commander said some of the country’s defense universities have attained the capability to manufacture “various generations of jet engines.”

“I daresay our students are among the best in their own majors throughout the country and even on the international level,” Nasirzadeh noted.

‘Iran chopper squadron strongest in region’

The Army Aviation commander, who had joined the defense minister, meanwhile, considered the country’s helicopter squadron to be “the strongest in the region.”

He also hailed that the squadron depended completely on the domestic defense industry for production of its various parts.

Ghorbani also noted how the country has succeeded to come by the night-vision goggle technology, and is currently producing the equipment in its domestic facilities.

Only a handful of countries have the technology at their disposal, he said, noting that the equipment is successfully used during military drills across the country’s southern coastline in January.