sorry for my title of my thread.
i had a debate with a guy from a different non military related site about his claim about the existance of this Iranian stealth aircraft. Here is what he wrote to me after I offered my opinion that this stealth aircraft claim is just propaganda:
His link:
http://english.farsnews.net/newstext.php?nn=8711152084
States that experts have already designed and manufactured the aircraft in a one-seventh scale and is ready for test flights. Iran's home-made radar-evading aircraft will join the country's fleet within the next 8 months. I criticized this claim by saying there is no way that they can make a scale model that hasn't even been tested yet into a fully functional stealth aircraft in just 8 months. He brushed my point of view by saying this:
START:
Well . . I am able to mention certain things and unable to mention others, regarding the latest Iranian Fighter-Jet project. So please clearly read what I have written so that you do not get yourselves into a frenzy of irrelevant postings that serve nothing but emotional outbursts.
Iranian Aviators, Engineers, Mechanics, Project Managers, and Designers think, feel, react, and respond differently to circumstances that their counterparts in Europe and US. You must first understand this before you can comprehend how Iran chooses its projects (aircraft or otherwise) and how it manages it, and develops its strategic needs and tactical requirements. These individuals that I am referring to are extremely sharp, very very knowledgeable, and would surprise all of you in terms of their depth and breadth as Aviators and Designers.
Additionally, Iran has multiple characters in its R+D, Project Selection and Funding, Requirements Analysis, and Strategic Needs. Each of these characters decide individually (almost) and head spear their projects based its interpretations and its own transformations during the progress of a particular project.
This is important since, as oppose to the European/US projects, the Iranian ones change shape almost daily and have to re-engineer themselves and their needs and project requirements. Although this is not constructive it is amazing to consider how Iran's characters have evolved through this intense amount of chaos and disorder to become excellent at managing a chaotic organization. Believe it or not, this does have some strategic advantage against US.
One of the characters in Iran is about sending signals to West through the projects that it funds, backs, supports, initiates, promotes, advertises, etc. that IRAN CAN DO IT. Now, "IT" refers to many projects that Iran and US had planned to perform together prior to 1979. The "IT" projects refer to Saeghae, Shabaviz, Shahed 274, etc. The groups that are unified and build this 'character' in Iran's Aviation are quite well known to many experts, no doubt.
There are many other Army, Navy, Air force etc. projects in Iran. Some of the other characters do not necessarily disclose where they are in terms of their capabilities.
They also have nothing to brag about, and nothing to show off about. They are extremely focused and highly competent individuals and organizations, both private and non-private, and they are the highest pillars of Iran's aviation characters (and most of the groups within each characters are quite autonomous in funding). Again, many of xperts no doubt know which organizations I am referring to.
Now it is well known, by many top level Iranian ex-IIAF and current IRIAF that the project managers of top strategic programs in Iran release enough information for strategic reasons. These reasons could include, among many others,
1) to recruitment of top Iranian engineers and aviators outside Iran;
2) to attract funding from Iranian sources outside Iran;
3) to retain many of the great engineers in the robotics and technology sector of the Iranian universities, etc. etc.
One such project that keep many Iranian engineers excited and founders supportive is a project from 1999/2000 called the Morgh Ashura.
This is an aircraft that "RESEMBLES PARTS OF THE AIRCRAFTS YF22-SU27SK-Chineese Stealth Fighter".
Read my statement very carefully I said it 'RESEMBLES", mainly in looks. I could be referring to air intake of one, wing design of the other, or such Partial comparisons to give an overall impressive of the aircraft.
This aircraft has some very advance features (I would call it 5th Generation), and some parts that are 4th generation, and some parts that are very old and engineers are working on all of these parts to bring to the most current level of technology and to integrate all these cohesively and intelligently.
In particular, the 3-linear directional thrust is quite interesting and it was something that German engineers perfected in mid 1980's when they were considering such technology for their version of the Eurofighter 2000.
The other technology that I believe is quite interesting is the computer integration, although this is not 5th generation, it is indeed advance enough (at least in my opinion) to cause concern for adversaries. Also, Iran's knowledge and experience in stealth (and believe it or not Iran does have quite a bit of knowledge and experience in this from the days of fooling Americans into thinking that Mig-25 was a threat) and this has been used quite extensively (surprisingly) in the design aspects of this project.
This aircraft will have many composite materials incorporated in its design, it will be somewhat stealthy, will have BVR capability, and it is aimed that it will also have very excellent maintenance ratios.
All of this is yet to be proven, so don't jump up and down your chair. It is a process of trial and error and a balance between US threats vs. perseverance of Iran's engineers/designers/founders and people.
Before you start getting into emotional reactions ("No Iran can't do it", "Yes Iran has built an aircraft the level of F/A22, F35", etc), please consider that Iran's aircraft (although it is actually 3 different modular designs) has reached the prototype AT DESIGN STAGE
This aircraft is quite an impressive endeavor by one of the Iranian 'character's and although Iran would need at least 2 more years to bring this into production, it is Iran's attempt to jump a few generations into the 4th and 4.5 generation aircraft development. In the next 2 to 3 years Iran will become a SWEDEN level aircraft designer and builder, although with more self-sufficiency than that of Sweden (Sweden purchases many of its parts from GE, Rolls Royce, etc.).
Iran also has many other projects that it is working on. More and more funding is being devoted to R&D and the industry is given more autonomy and more resources and priority. It is assumed that Iran needs a two pronged approach for self defense. This part (conventional airforce, army, and navy) had previously not received much priority - other than for maintenance and support. Now R+D is given a very high priority since some times now
Please read the above statements very carefully before you knock yourselves out with assumptions, exaggeration and/or rebuttals.
END/
Then i showed him this link:
http://www.tehrantimes.com/Index_view.asp?code=188509
States: "Iran’s new stealth fighter will make its maiden test flight by the end of summer 2009." Meaning that they claim that a scale model that has just begun testing will be a fully fledged stealth aircraft ready for taxi trials this summer.
Then I showed him this link:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblog...ter_latest.asp
Again he brushed off my links as "unreliable sources."
