Iran unveils first domestic fighter jet

An Iranian-made Saegheh (Thunder) fighter jet takes off in Chabahar city, south of Iran during a military exercise on June 23, 2009. Iran rolled out on Tuesday, August 21, 2018, its first fully domestic fighter jet, the Kowsar. AFP FILE

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran unveiled its first domestic fighter jet at a defense show in Tehran on Tuesday.

Images on state television showed President Hassan Rouhani sitting in the cockpit of the new “Kowsar” plane at the National Defense Industry exhibition.

It is a fourth-generation fighter, with “advanced avionics” and multi-purpose radar, the Tasnim news agency said, adding that it was “100-percent indigenously made”.

State TV said the plane had already been through successful testing and showed it waiting on a runway for its first public display flight.

The plane was first publicly announced on Saturday by Defense Minister Amir Hatami, who had said it would be unveiled on Wednesday.

He gave few details of the project, focusing instead on Iran’s efforts to upgrade its missile defenses.

Hatami said the defense program was motivated by memories of the missile attacks Iran suffered during its eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s, and by repeated threats from Israel and the United States that “all options are on the table” in dealing with the Islamic republic.

“We have learned in the (Iran-Iraq) war that we cannot rely on anyone but ourselves. Our resources are limited and we are committed to establishing security at a minimum cost,” he said in a televised interview.

The US has sold hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons to Iran’s regional rivals, but has demanded that Tehran curb its defense programs, and is in the process of reimposing crippling sanctions in a bid to force its capitulation. /cbb