Iran has officially announced its intentions to purchase Russian fighter jets.
Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force [IRIAF] commander Brigadier General Hamid Vahedi has
officially announced that Iran will purchase 24 Su-35 fighter jets from Russia.
This is what the Turkish online portal sammunasanayist.com writes in its Sunday edition.
According to Turkish sources, Iran is ready to buy the 24 Sukhoi Su-35 Flanker-E fighter
jets that Egypt ordered from Russia, but Russia did not deliver.
It is believed that after this purchase, Iran will make a second one for another 36 units
of the Russian flagship.
The Turkish publication sammunasanayist.com claims that after the purchase of the first
24 fighters, Tehran and Moscow may sit down at the negotiating table for the production
of the 36 fighters in Iran.
The Turkish source claimed that 30 Iranian pilots are already in Russia and are expected
to undergo training.
Why the Egyptian Su-35?
Egypt ordered 24 Sukhoi Su-35 Flanker-E fighter jets at the beginning of 2019, in March.
The planes have already been produced but are still sitting in the Sukhoi hangars.
There are two main versions why Egypt does not receive them.
One version is a technical malfunction that prevented Egypt from fulfilling the contract.
This version is unlikely, since technical faults have always existed in every single
production, and they are fixed, even if the delivery period is extended.
The second version is Egypt’s refusal to pay for the delivery of the 24 fighters.
Such a refusal may have been dictated by Cairo’s fear of Washington not imposing severe economic
sanctions under the CAATSA law.
Despite these claims, it is not yet known whether Egypt actually canceled the order.
But the Turkish source claims that Iran wants to buy exactly these 24 Su-35 units.Iran has
problems in terms of establishing air superiority.
Currently, the IRIAF flies MiG-29A, MiG-21, F-14A, and F-5 purchased many years ago.
Because of the UN embargo, Tehran could not access modern technologies in aerospace engineering
for decades.
It was forced with its own resources and a technological disadvantage to trying to modernize
its combat aircraft.
In 2020, the UN embargo against Iran fell.
Back then, BulgarianMilitary.com wrote that there are two areas of defense that Iran will
try to strengthen – modern fighters and air defense systems.
Thus came January 2022, when an agreement was signed between Iran and Russia on defense
and security cooperation.
This agreement includes not only the modernization of the existing fighter jets of the IRIAF
but also the purchase of two S-400 air defense batteries and 24 Su-35 fighters.
The deal is said to be worth close to $10 billion.
Turkish sources claim that Tehran has already built a hangar for the modernization activities
of the MiG-29 and Su-24 aircraft.
According to some claims, Iran’s MiG-29A fighter jets are planned to be upgraded to
the MiG-29SMT level.
On Aug. 2, an open-source intelligence Twitter account cited unofficial sources claiming
that “Iran has sent the first batch of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to Russia for field
testing.”
“Also Iranian pilots and technicians sent to Russia for training on Su-35,” the tweet
added.
While it could not independently verify this claim, the Institute for the Study of War
(ISW) think tank noted it “is consistent with recent reports that Tehran and Moscow
are pursuing greater aviation cooperation in order to circumvent international sanctions
on Russia and Iran and support Russian operations in Ukraine.”
“If true, this claim suggests that Iran may be receiving Russian Su-35 aircraft in
return for the drones, which could have been part of an agreement signed by Moscow and
Tehran on July 26,” ISW added.
“Tehran may seek to use this agreement to facilitate the acquisition of Russian combat
aircraft,” it concluded.
In mid-July, the White House said that Russian officials visited the Kashan airfield in central
Iran to view Tehran’s locally-developed Shahed-129 and Shahed-191 armed drones.
The White House claims that Russia is procuring “hundreds” of Iranian-built drones.
In December 2021, it was also claimed that Russia and Iran would sign a 20-year $10 billion
defense agreement in January 2022.
Russia would supply Iran with two dozen Su-35s and S-400 air defense missile systems as part
of that deal.
Of course, nothing has been heard about this purportedly impending agreement since.
One should also be skeptical about this latest claim.
Still, such a swap would make a lot of sense.
Iran is proficient in building armed drones but hasn’t acquired any new fighter jets
since the early 1990s.
On the other hand, Russia built some relatively advanced fighter jets, later model Sukhois
such as the Su-35 and the Su-34 Fullback fighter/strike aircraft, but was relatively late to prioritize
its own drone development.