Iran’s defense minister claims homemade fighter ready to fly

Production complete on stealth plane Qaher F313, initially unveiled in 2013 and derided as hoax; now said ready for testing

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, listens to an unidentified pilot during a ceremony to unveil Iran's newest fighter jet, the Qaher-313, in Tehran, Iran, February 2, 2013 (AP/Mehr News Agency/Younes Khani)
Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, listens to an unidentified pilot during a ceremony to unveil Iran's newest fighter jet, the Qaher-313, in Tehran, Iran, February 2, 2013 (AP/Mehr News Agency/Younes Khani)

Iran’s defense minister claimed that work on his country’s homemade fighter plane is complete and it is now ready for testing, the Iranian semi-official news agency Fars reported Sunday.

General Hossein Dehqan said that final stages of production of the Qaher F-313 fighter were complete, but gave no further details.

The Qaher was 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.

Four years ago, then president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that building the Qaher F-313, or “Dominant” F-313, shows Iran’s will to “conquer scientific peaks.”

Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan. (YouTube screen capture)
Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehgan. (YouTube screen capture)

Since that time nothing further has been reported about the plane.

The plane displayed in the Iranian media at that time looked more like a fiberglass or cardboard model, Israeli aeronautics expert Tal Inbar told Maariv at the time.

“It’s not a plane, because that’s not how a real plane looks,” he said. “Iran doesn’t have the ability to build planes. Plain and simple.”

Aviation guru David Cenciotti, a freelance reporter, remarked at the time on his blog that the plane sported “implausible aerodynamics and Hollywood sheen” and was laughably small for a fighter jet. He noted that the cockpit was far too basic for a sophisticated aircraft, and appeared “similar to those equipping small private planes.”

Iran also broadcast video footage in 2013 of the Qaher F-313 in flight, which Cenciotti said appeared to fly like a “radio-controlled scale model more than a modern fighter jet.” He also noted it was suspect that Tehran did not release takeoff and landing footage of its new aircraft.

Yet even at that time, an Israeli aerospace engineer who spoke with The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity said that while the plane displayed by the Iranian press was clearly not a working prototype, it integrated advanced stealth design with extreme maneuverability. He said that while the Qaher’s design lacked bombing capability, it had the potential to be an effective interceptor capable of defending Iran’s skies from aerial threats.

“They need a defensive interceptor that gives them the element of surprise, and it is big enough to carry real air-to-air missiles,” he said.

Ilan Ben Zion contributed to this report.

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