Equipment of the Iranian Army

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Iranian Army

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From 1925 to the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Iran used to be equipped with the very latest Western hardware. Cases exist where Iran was supplied with equipment even before it was made standard in the countries that developed it (for example the US F-14 Tomcat, or the British Chieftain Tank). Primary suppliers included the United States, Britain, France, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), Italy, Israel, and the Soviet Union.

The Iran-Iraq War, and post revolutionary sanctions at the time had a dramatic effect on Iran's inventory of western equipment. Under the pressures of war all supplies were quickly exhausted and replacements became increasingly difficult to come by. The war eventually forced Iran to turn towards the Soviet Union, North Korea, Brazil, and China to meet its short term military requirements. Initial developments in every field of military technology were carried out with the technical support of Russia, China, and North Korea to lay the foundations for future industries. Iranian reliance on these countries has rapidly decreased over the last decade in most sectors where Iran sought to gain total independence; however, in some sectors such as the Aerospace sector and missile technology Iran is still greatly reliant on external help. Iran has, at present, developed an uncanny ability to reverse engineer existing foreign hardware, improve it to its own requirements and then manufacture the finished product. Examples of this are the Boragh and the IAMI Azarakhsh. In an attempt to make its military industries more sustainable Iran has also sought to export its military products, see Iranian Military Exports.

Contents 1 Armored vehicles 1.1 Armored personnel carriers 1.2 Infantry Fighting Vehicles 1.3 Tanks 2 Artillery 2.1 Towed artillery 2.2 Self-propelled artillery 3 Surface-to-surface missiles 3.1 Cruise missiles 4 Battlefield missile systems 4.1 Air defence 4.1.1 Shoulder-launched missiles 4.1.2 Radar systems 5 Army aviation 5.1 Unmanned aerial vehicles 6 Small arms and personal equipment 6.1 Small arms 6.2 Other equipment 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Armored vehicles

[edit] Armored personnel carriers

• Cobra BMT-2 APC (Iranian Origin)
• Boragh APC (Iranian Origin)
• M113A1/A2 APC
• EE-11 Urutu APC
• BTR-60 APC
• BTR-50 Amphibious APC
• EE-9 Cascavel APC
• EE-11 Urutu

[edit] Infantry Fighting Vehicles

• BMP-1
• BMP-2

[edit] Tanks

• Zulfiqar MBT 1/2/3
• Rustam MBT
• T-72S; many built under license in Iran^[1]; upgraded by Russia ^[2]
• T-62
• T-55/T-54/Type 59; many upgraded to T-72Z/Safir-74/Type T-72Z
• Chieftain; Many upgraded to Mobarez.^[3]
• M60 Patton
• M48 Patton
• M47 Patton
• Scorpion tank
• Tosan

[edit] Artillery

[edit] Towed artillery

105 mm

• M101A1 / M56

122 mm

• D-30/2A18M
• Type-54

152 mm

• 152 mm towed gun-howitzer M1955 (D-20)

155 mm

• WAC-21
• GHN-45
• M-114
• Soltam M-71
• FH-77B
• G-5

203 mm

• M-115

[edit] Self-propelled artillery

122 mm

• 2S1
• Raad 1 (Iranian Origin)

155 mm

• Raad 2 (Iranian Origin)
• M-109

170 mm

• M-1978

175 mm

• M-107

203 mm

• M-110

[edit] Surface-to-surface missiles

This refers to ballistic missiles and not battlefield systems. Iran's missile forces are under the command of the Revolutionary Guards, under the Army's authority.
Additional information is available at Air Force of the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution who operate Iran's long-range missiles.

[edit] Cruise missiles

• AS-15 Kent / Kh-55 Granat

[edit] Battlefield missile systems

Short Range (Iranian origin)

• Samid Artillery Rocket
• Fajr-2 Artillery Rocket (Multiple rocket launcher)
• Fajr-3 Artillery Rocket (Multiple rocket launcher)
• Fajr-5 Artillery Rocket (Multiple rocket launcher)
• Tondar-69 Artillery Rocket
• Oghab Artillery Rocket (Multiple rocket launcher)
• Shahin-II Artillery Rocket
• Naze'at Artillery Rocket
• Zelzal Artillery Rocket
• Fateh-110

Anti-tank missiles

• Toophan (reverse engineered TOW missile)
• Toophan 2 (reverse engineered American BGM-71 TOW armor piercing)
• Toophan 3 (Iranian origin)
• Saeghe 1/2 (Dragon)
• AT-3 Sagger
• AT-4 Spigot
• AT-5 Spandrel / Konkurs (built as Towsan-1 or M-113 in Iran)
• Saegheh improved version of the RPG-7.
• RPG-7
• RPG-29
• MILAN

[edit] Air defence

• I-Hawk (Improved version of the original US Hawk system)
• SM-1 (locally manufactured)
• Tigercat
• Rapier
• Shahab Tagheb / Locally manufactured, based on HQ-7
• Sayyad-1 / Sayyad-1A (upgraded copy of HQ-2, Sayyad-1A has IR tracking)
• SA-3 Goa / Pechora-2A (Russian upgrade of the basic SA-3 Goa)
• Ghareh (upgraded copy of SA-5 Gammon with 250 km range)
• SA-6 Gainful / Kub
• S-200 Locally upgraded and improved [1]
• S-300PMU1 (denied by Russian MoD) [2] [3]
• SA-15 Gauntlet / Tor-M1
• Shahab Thaqeb (copy of the Chinese HQ-7 system)

[edit] Shoulder-launched missiles

• Misagh-1 (copy of Chinese QW-1)
• Misagh-2 (copy of Chinese QW-2)
• RBS-70
• SA-7 Grail
• SA-16 Gimlet
• SA-18 Grouse

[edit] Radar systems

• Gamma
• Kasta
• Kolchuga ^[4]
• JY-14 (Chinese origin)

[edit] Army aviation

The Army operates 188 aircraft, including 527 helicopters.

Aircraft	Origin	Type	Versions	In service[5]	Notes
Aero Commander	United States	utility transport	690	4
Bell 205	Italy	light-lift utility helicopter	AB 205 Shabaviz 2-75	10	built by Agusta and Panha
Bell 206 JetRanger	Italy  Iran	utility helicopter	AB 206A Shabaviz 2061	40	built by Agusta and Panha
Bell 214	United States	medium-lift transport helicopter	214A	56
AH-1J Sea Cobra	United States	attack helicopter	AH-1J Panha 2091	202	Model 2091 upgrade by Panha
Boeing CH-47 Chinook	United States	Heavy-lift transport helicopter	CH-47C	45	built by Agusta
Cessna 185	United States	utility		10
Dassault Falcon 20	France	VIP transport	Falcon 20E	1
Fokker F27 Friendship	Netherlands	tactical transport	F27-400M F27-600	1 1

Aircraft which have served recently and of which numbers may remain in reserve storage or second-line use include:

• Bell 204 UH-1
• Hughes 300C

[edit] Unmanned aerial vehicles

• Ababil
• Mohajer I/II/III/IV
• Sahand
• Faraz I
• Faraz II
• Sabokbal

[edit] Small arms and personal equipment

[edit] Small arms

• Khaybar KH2002 an Iranian designed 5.56x45 mm bullpup rifle
• SPG-9
• PC-9 ZOAF 9 mm pistol, licenced local production variant of the Swiss SIG P-226
• AKM Cal. 7.62x39 mm (supplemented by limited numbers of AK-47 and Type 56 rifles), recently Iran started the national manufacture of the Type 56 (Chinese AKM) rifle series as the KL-7. Whether this manufacture is under license or not, is unconfirmed at this time
• Heckler & Koch G3A6 Cal. 7.62x51 mm (licenced production)[4], main service rifle
• Heckler & Koch MG3 Cal. 7.62x51 mm (licenced production) [5]
• Tondar Sub-Machine Gun 9x19 mm (MP5 manufactured under licence)
• PKM
• Dragunov Sniper Rifle (local production)
• Steyr HS .50
• S.5'56 Chinese version of the M16
• RPG-7 [6]

[edit] Other equipment

• Gas masks
• Bullet Proof Vests (used by specialized units and some army divisions, not yet standard issue)

[edit] See also

• Iranian military industry
• List of Iranian Air Force aircraft
• Army aviation

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Manufacturing equipment for the Iranian Army
• Iranian Defense Industries Organization
• GlobalSecurity.Org - Iran
• GlobalSecurity.Org - Equipment Estimation

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