April 21, 2017
Video showing a new prototype of Iran’s latest fighter aircraft, the Qaher (Conqueror) F-313, has been released showing the plane undergoing taxi tests, but not flying.
The plane is billed as a stealth aircraft, but American aircraft industry publications that watched the video scoffed at that claim.
The aircraft is different from the one unveiled February 2, 2013, to much touting by the Iranian armed forces and much laughter from foreign analysts who pointed out the cockpit was too small for a normal human. It was seen as nothing more than a poorly designed mock-up that would never fly.
Four years ago, the cockpit photos showed only a few instruments, the air intakes appeared too small, the engine section lacked any kind of nozzle meaning that the engine would probably melt the aircraft’s back-end.
The new prototype retains the original strange shape but has a more realistic and larger cockpit, with a “normal” canopy; the previous one was clearly made of Plexiglas.
The Qaher engines are equipped with dual exhaust nozzles. According to some sources quoted by The Aviationist, these are US engines; according to others these would be new turbofan engines or modified Iranian J-85s. A sort of FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared Radar) turret was attached to the nose of the aircraft that also features a white radome.
The Aviationist said, “Although the new prototype is not a complete joke as its predecessor, it is still pretty hard to say whether it will be able to take to the air and land safely without further modifications.”
The magazine added, “Let’s be prudent and wait once again for more footage about the F-313 to see if it will eventually be modified to become something real, with a real capability or just a concept.”
Iran has adopted the American system of designation, using an “F” prefix to designate this aircraft as a fighter. The video broadcast on state television called the plane “100 percent Iranian” and compared it to the new American F-22 stealth fighter.
In 2007, Iran unveiled what it claimed was its first domestically designed and produced fighter jet, the Azarakhsh (Lightning) and announced it had gone into mass production. That was basically the last that was heard of the Azarakhsh.
A few years later, Iran unveiled the Saeqeh (Thunder), which looks very much like an American F-5 and did go into production. A squadron the planes was seen at an air show in 2010.
The Qaher becomes Iran’s third generation effort at building fighter aircraft and is clearly a very distanctive Iranian design, not a copy of some American, Russian or European design.
But few in the West are impressed. The defense editor at The National Interest, Dave Majumdar, was loudly dismissive after watching the video of the rollout.
“The new Qaher variant retains wing leading edges that are very rounded with a very thick airfoil—limiting the aircraft’s speed. Moreover, the placement of the small air inlets are certain to cause problems at higher angles of attack,” he wrote.
He said the design was anything but stealthy. The thick and rounded leading edges of the wings would easily show up on radar, as would many other parts of the plane. He said a US engineer said the plane appeared to lack room for carrying weapons inside, as claimed by Iran. But no aircraft can carry weapons outside and be stealthy.
The National Interest concluded, “Any claims that the F-313 might be a stealth aircraft are laughable.”
Furthermore, it said the plane is so small that it’s not clear it could carry enough fuel to be able to fly far enough to be worth building.
It said, “The aircraft does appear to mount an electro-optical /infrared sensor turret under the nose—but the camera would simply add to the F-313’s radar cross-section,” meaning it would be readily visible to radar and not stealthy.
