There is new speculation that Iran could simply buy 4. 5-generation Sukhoi Su-35SE “Super Flankers” fighter jets from Russia for its archaic air force in the near future.
Iran and Russia reportedly signed a 20-year, $10 billion defense deal in January. Under the agreement, Moscow will bring to Tehran 24 Su-35SEs, two complex S-400 air defense missile systems and an army satellite.
The Super Flankers are the same ones that Russia built for the Egyptian Air Force; however, the risk of U. S. sanctions opposing Cairo by countering the Adversaries Act through U. S. Sanctions (CAATSA) may very well jeopardize the $2 billion deal.
For now, several Su-35SEs destined for delivery to Egypt remain stationed at Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Russian Far East, which houses the Komsomolsk-on-Amur (KnAAZ) aircraft factory of the same name, fueling the hypothesis that Russia would sell them. to Iran or Algeria (one of Russia’s main arms customers).
One article estimates that 15 Su-35Ses could be transferred to Iran in early 2022 if a contract is signed.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) is quite archaic. Most of its fleet is comprised of F-14A, F-4 and F-5 aircraft built in the United States and delivered in the 1960s and 1970s the reign of Since then, Tehran has acquired MiG-29A from Russia and Dassault Mirage F-1s from the former Iraqi Air Force that visited the country during the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
Iran has bought new fighter jets since the early 1990s.
Thus, the acquisition of two dozen 4. 5-generation Su-35SE, which are supplied with thrust vector engines and a Tikhomirov NIIP N135 Irbis Passive Electronically Scanned Array (PESA) radar, may bring Iran’s air force to life and serve as an interim solution for the country as it modernizes its fighter fleet over the next decade.
Fighters built in Russia or China (or a combination of both) have gone through experts to be the maximum Iran would likely buy in the 2020s or early 2030s.
However, Tehran has taken advantage beyond the opportunities to buy fashionable Russian aircraft for internal reasons similar to the design of the existing force in Iran.
Shortly after the 2015 nuclear deal, there is a hypothesis that Iran would seize the opportunity to obtain 30 Russian Su-30 jets and three hundred major T-90 war tanks, but that did not happen. Instead of buying three hundred T-90s for the Iranian army, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) paramilitaries got only 24 and transferred them all to Syria to fight alongside then-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
As a component of the 2015 nuclear deal, the UN arms embargo opposed to Iran expires in October 2020. In the months leading up to this expiration date, the U. S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) speculated that Iran could simply buy S-400s, Su-30 Flankers, Yak-130 running shoes, and T-90 tanks. The embargo expired more than a year ago, and there is little to no evidence that Iran is actively seeking purchases of primary weapons.
Military aviation Tom Cooper (who has written extensively about the IRIAF) explained in 2016 how Iran’s governance formula and appointments between the IRGC and the normal armed forces would make such primary acquisitions highly unlikely.
Nor is he convinced today that Iran will buy those Su-35SEs built for Egypt for the same reason.
“First I would like to know that the IRGC has allowed the IRIAF to get this kind of thing, and then Tehran has the mandatory cash, before drawing useful conclusions,” he wrote on December 30.