History of the Iranian Air Force

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Iranian Air Force

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Iranian Air Force
Structure of the Iranian Air Force
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History of the Iranian Air Force
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List of senior officers
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List of aircraft

The IRIAF began as the Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF) which was established in 1920 by the Shah, Reza Pahlavi, and became operational with its first fully trained pilots on February 25, 1925. Iran's first attempt to procure aircraft from the United States in the 1920s failed due to Washington's refusal to supply equipment because of a World War I treaty.

Up until World War II, the IIAF's aircraft inventory consisted entirely of European (mainly German) aircraft, however following a coordinated British and Russian invasion of Iran during World War II in retaliation for Reza Shah's declaring of neutrality, the IIAF's bases were occupied by the allies and all existing IIAF aircraft were either destroyed or dismantled by the invading British.

After World War II, the IIAF began to slowly rebuild its inventory with mainly American and British supplied aircraft.

Later, in the 1970s, the IIAF became the only military force other than the USN to be equipped with the F-14 Tomcat. Although after the Iranian revolution some of these planes were not in working order due to lack of necessary spare parts and damage sustained on the aircraft during the Iraqi invasion (Iran-Iraq war), some were brought back in service due to localised production of reverse engineered Iranian spare parts as well as "cannibalism" (the process of taking parts from damaged aircraft and using them to repair others). The IIAF had also placed an order for over 150 F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter aircraft in 1976, but deliveries were never made due to the overthrow of the Shah by Ayatollah Khomeni; these aircraft would go on to serve in the Israeli Air Force.

The overthrow of the Shah by the Islamic Revolution changed the organization of the Iranian military. The air force itself was decimated by purges and many pilots were removed or left. This left the air force ill prepared for the Iran-Iraq War. Due to strained relations with the west, Iran had to procure new equipment from Brazil, Russia and the People's Republic of China.

Since the Revolution, the exact composition of the IRIAF is hard to determine, but estimates do exist. Many aircraft belonging to the Iraqi Air Force took refuge in Iran during the Persian Gulf War, and many were put into service with the IRIAF or taken apart for spare parts.

Due to the continuous spare parts shortages faced by the air force, a decision was made in the late 1990s to develop a local aerospace industry to support the air force.

In 2002, Iran with the cooperation of Ukraine, successfully started the manufacture of the Iran-140, a small cargo plane also known as the Antonov An-140. Simultaneously, Iran began construction of two 100% domestically produced fighters upgraded using technology from the F-14 Tomcat and the F-5 Tiger the fighters has been named the Azarakhsh and the Shafaq.

Since then the country has also become sufficient in the manufacture of helicopters: The country claims that it is capable of producing the old U.S. AH-1 Cobra gunship, additionally Iran also produces Bell 212 and 206 helicopters in serial production. These are known respectively as the Shabaviz 2-75 and the Shabaviz 206.