Ahmadinejad unveils Iran's newest fighter jet that can evade Radar
TEHRAN, Iran
(AP) — Iran on Saturday unveiled its newest combat jet, a domestically
manufactured fighter-bomber that military officials claim can evade
radar.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a ceremony broadcast on state
TV that building the Qaher F-313, or Dominant F-313, shows Iran's will
to "conquer scientific peaks."The Qaher is one of several aircraft designs the Iranian military has rolled out since 2007. Tehran has repeatedly claimed to have developed advanced military technologies in recent years, but its claims cannot be independently verified because the country does not release technical details of its arsenals.
The Islamic republic launched a
self-sufficient military program in the 1980s to compensate for a
Western weapons embargo that banned export of military technology and
equipment to Iran. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armored
personnel carriers, missiles, torpedoes, drones and fighter planes.
"Qaher is a fully indigenous aircraft designed and built by our aerospace experts. This is a radar-evading plane that can fly at low altitude, carry weapons, engage enemy aircrafts and land at short airstrips," Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said.
Vahidi said advanced materials were used to manufacture the body of the aircraft, making it Iran's best stealth plane.
However, some reports suggest
that Iran's program relies on equipment supplied by major international
defense contractors and that it incorporates parts made abroad or uses
outside engineered technologies in its domestic designs.
Still photos of the Qaher
released by the official IRNA news agency and pictures on state TV
showed a single-seat jet. They described it as a fighter-bomber that can
combat other aircraft and ground targets.
Iran's English-language state
Press TV said Qaher was similar to the American-made F/A-18, an advanced
fighter capable of dogfighting as well as penetrating enemy air
defenses to strike ground targets.
But Hasan Parvaneh, an official
in charge of the project, said the physical design of the Iranian plane
was unique and bore no resemblance to any foreign fighter jet.
"Development depends on our will.
If we don't have a will, no one can take us there," Ahmadinejad told
the inauguration ceremony in Tehran. "Once we imported cars and
assembled them here. Now, we are at a point where we can design, build
and get planes in the air."
Ahmadinejad said Qaher was built for deterrence."It's not for expansionism. It's for deterrence," he said, claiming the aircraft was among the most advanced fighter jets in the world.
In 2007, Iran unveiled what it
said was its first domestically manufactured fighter jet, called
Azarakhsh or Lightning. In the same year, it claimed that Azarakhsh had
reached industrial production stage.
Saeqeh, or Thunder, was a
follow-up aircraft derived from Azarakhsh. Iran unveiled its first
squadron of Saeqeh fighter bombers in an air show in September 2010.
