Breaking news
Iran is interested in buying Russian's all types of weapons in addition to S-300 air defense systems TASS 42611152.
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Defence & Security News - Iran
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| Iran is interested in buying Russian's all types of weapons in addition to S-300 air defense systems | |||
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Iran is showing interest in purchasing all types of Russia’s weapons in addition to S-300 air defense missile systems, Russian presidential aide for military and technical cooperation Vladimir Kozhin told TASS on Thursday.
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"Iran is showing great interest in military and technical cooperation. So far, Russia and Iran have signed a contract [for the delivery of Russian-made S-300 air defense missile systems], which has been announced," Kozhin said.
"Iran is interested in the whole range of our military hardware as it has a big army but has not rearmed its Air Force, Navy and Ground Forces for a long time due to sanctions. Generally speaking, Iran is showing interest in a wide range of Russian-made weapons," the Russian presidential aide said. According to Jane’s Defence Weekly journal, Iran is preparing to rearm its Air Force. For almost 35 years, the Iranian Air Force’s fleet has comprised US aircraft purchased during the rule of King of Iran Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. Therefore, the Iranian Air Force’s fleet has become actually obsolete by now. The agreement reached on the Iran nuclear issue by world powers opens the way for lifting international sanctions imposed on Tehran and unfreezing its foreign assets worth nearly $150 billion. Consequently, the Iranian Armed Forces will study an option to purchase new armaments, in particular, aircraft. As of today, the Iranian Air Force operates 40 out of 79 purchased F-14 Tomcat fighter jets, about 60 F-4D/E Phantom II fighter bombers and almost the same number of F-5E/F Tiger fighter jets. The Iranian Air Force made operational 24 Iraqi Mirage F1 fighter jets, which arrived in Iran at the end of the Gulf War in 1991. Iran also purchased about 20 Russian-made Sukhoi Su-24 (NATO reporting name: Fencer) frontline bombers of various versions. Iran also received several Mikoyan MiG-29 (Fulcrum) fighter jets and Su-25 (Flanker-E) attack aircraft from Iraq. The Su-25 aircraft have been returned to Iraq recently to fight the Islamic State terrorist group. Iran purchased about 20 F-7 fighter jets from China as well. According to various foreign sources, Iran is planning to purchase a big number of weapons. Priority is given to the Russian-made Su-30MK (Flanker-S) aircraft and its versions. The purchase of Russian-made Su-30MK aircraft will allow Iran to decommission the obsolete US aircraft and Chinese F-7 fighter jets, which were developed on the basis of the Soviet MiG-21 (Fishbed) fighter jet. |
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