possible sources for new Iranian fighter jets

With continued Israeli threats to attack Iran's nuclear program Iran has a right to defend its skies against attackers, not many people are aware of how dangerous an attack as threatened would be.

For instance the attack on the Bushehr nuclear reactor would immediately kill thousands living in the surrounding areas and poison those as far away as the Qatar and the United Arab Emirates!

With Iran threatening to do the same to Israel this is indeed a dangerous game, Iran can counter Israeli aggression but does it have sufficient air power to defend against a massive Israeli strike.

Unfortunately not, the F-14A is still the top gun of the Iranian Air Force and the 25 or so still in service don't have AIM-54 missiles that made them such a deadly force in the 1980's, other aircraft they have worth mentioning would be handful of MiG-29's bought from Russia in 1983 and several ex Iraqi Air Force jets that crossed over during Operation Desert Storm, some of these (most notable examples being the a handful of Mirage F-1's and some Su-25's) are still in service today.

Venezuela offered to sell their fleet of 21 F-16's after the US introduced an arms embargo, only 12 remain in service today in the Venezuelan air force and the US strictly does not allow Venezuela to sell the fleet to a third country without written consent!


source

Since when did they have command over Venezuela?
They should be allowed do what they want, its for defence and Iranian engineers would surely be able to develop new parts for them like they did in the case for their F-14's and F-4's, hell they were even able to build a fighter from scratch based on components from the F-14 and F-5!

Next onto a country that doesn't have arms and economic sanctions against Iran.



That would be North Korea, Iran have already acquired a hand full of missiles off North Korea but I somehow doubt they will acquire many planes, most of the North Korean air force are older MiG's (Fishbeds, Floggers etc.) most of which probably don't even work, the best North Korea have are a rumoured 35 to 40 MiG-29 Fulcrums (see picture above) which are used to defend Pyongyang airspace.

I somehow doubt they will want to sell any of them to Iran or anyone else for that matter.

They could turn to someone else who isn't an ally or a friend, or anything really for that matter.

Russia.



Iranian citizens crying death to Russia recently didn't seem to strain relations, rumours of Russia delivering S-300 air defence batteries to Iran aren't yet verified, but if that is true that mean Iran could bolster one hell of an air defence against enemy aircraft.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran has signed an arms deal with the Russian Rosoboronexport arms group to buy 250 Su-30 MKM warplanes and 20 Il-78 MKI aerial tankers.
It was dismissed as propaganda, but still if it had been true it would have well evened the tide, it would have been over three times as big as the amount of F-14's delivered during the 1970's, but not just that, they would be able to import parts if they ever had to fight a long war, and spread out across the many tactical air bases presently existing in Iran would be the perfect defence for Iran's skies, (the old Khatami Air Base the ex hub for the F-14's built in the desert outside of Isfahan comes into mind as a great base of operations for this new fleet).

Anyway, back from Nevernever land the only hope of something like this happening in the near future will be long after the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev realizes nuclear talks will take little action on the other side and a militerization of Georgia might lead him to back Iran with just such enormous aerial defence logistics.

But for the moment Iran will just have to rely on what they have at the moment!

looks like Pearl Harbor all over again!

I remember reading this article last month and laughing my ass off, North Korea is going to attack Hawaii?

So they really expect us to take this seriously, I mean the US have already deployed missile defences (probably some Patriot batteries) in Hawaii and Alaska, and today North Korea actually tested seven missiles.

Now I do see North Korea as a threat but attack Hawaii?



I know tens of thousands of Americans do live in Honolulu the city there but still, apart from the fact North Korea's longest range missile (the Taepodong-2) can reach 4,000km does the fact that Hawaii is 4,500km not dawn on them, maybe targeting a nuclear missile at Anchorage in Alaska would make more sense!


Congratulations you're an idiot!

It's almost like what's at stake in a terrible movie like Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil, or a season of 24, in which terrorists obviously want to blow up the Playboy mansion in Los Angeles for three years in a row, or maybe Kim Jong iL wants missiles that will reach Los Angeles in California because they refuse to help market and publish his homemade movies.

Maybe he saw Michael Bays Pearl Harbor and was jealous of the "special effects" and wants to better what he saw by dropping one of his missiles down there on Independence Day, like the nuking's from the movie Independence Day!

Apart from my strategical brilliant idea of having him nuke or partially destroy Seoul before launching a full scale conventional invasion most people disagree and until Hawaii and he seems to be going down the road of nuking Japan.

Now that just sounds pure wrong doesn't it, doesn't he know that they have been nuked twice less than a hundred years ago and were the only people in history ever to be killed in their thousands by nuclear weapons, I don't think it would be nice to do it again, in fact it would be downright evil!


"The No-Dong missile!"

And if they do attempt to do this US retaliation from South Korea backed by the US Pacific Fleet and air force from Okinawa would hit down on North Korea hard, China have even stated it has built mass refuge camps for North Korean civilians in case something like this happens!

Kim Jong Il is a moron and is leading the people of his country down a rough path of destruction!

If he was a true leader he would at least help feed his people instead of building ballistic missiles while his citizens live off grass and tree bark.

P.S. to my American readers especially the fifty or so from Hawaii that clicked here in the last two weeks, Happy Independence Day!

the final end to the Korean War?

If you've watched or listened to the radio in the past week then you've probably noticed that since last Monday North Korea are going just a little bit crazy, it was only talking about dismantling its nuclear program last summer and now its talking about breaking the 1953 cease fire and restarting the Korean War now that it has nuclear weapons.

Maybe this was sparked by failed six party talks my recent blog calling for pre-emptive strike on North Korea or the fact that nobody takes Kim Jong iL sewiously I don't know.

The Peoples Republic of China announced two days ago that it is readying for massive immigrations of citizens from North Korea in case a war does break out, but if it does what exactly will happen.

South Korea have the strategic advantage, a smaller army but a larger air force (and 40,000 American soldiers training everyday for this war) which means they will get the strategic advantage, but North Korea is thinking in 1950's terms.

What if Kim thinks its his time, he has nuclear weapons, maybe he's readying to hit Seoul with a nuclear bomb, wipe out power and communication and then send his 1,100,000 sized armed army across the 38th Parallel and unite Korea under his communist rule.

Of course this will never work in the long term, if the US and South Korea (which has no nuclear weapons) continue to fight this war conventional it will indeed have more than 1,000,000 people dead, I'm talking about the entire war not a strike on Seoul.

Although the bomb that they tested last Monday has the yield of the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945, delivered by a missile it wouldn't wipe out Seoul but with a city so densely populated (over 10,000,000 people) you're talking at least 100,000 instantly killed by the detonation, the resulting wind would crush people and break windows as far as the city limits, so yes this is a big enough threat.

But the 24 or so MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter jets that their air force I doubt are configured to carry a homemade nuclear bomb, it is stated that the Taepodong-1 (a missile derived from the Scud missile) is a test bed for multi-stage missile technologies, but the Taepodong-2 which the US states would give North Korea the power to hit almost any country in South East Asia or the west coast of the United States, (George W. Bush never saw this as a threat!).

when can 'operation unification' begin?

Ah North Korea, dictated by a movie buff who represents a dead guy who keeps his people isolated from the real world, and who is attempting to build and may acquire (one or two) nuclear weapons.

Okay before I even start check out the satellite image of North Korea at night compared to South Korea;



That's where the problem starts, the North Korean people need to see the light, they're a traditional old fashioned dictatorship divided by the 38th Parallel by the extremely wealthy South Korea, both countries (South Korea backed by the United States) never officially ended the Korean war, they are currently in cease fire mode since 1953!

And North Korea recently ended agreements to end its nuclear program, yes they're continuing their nuclear program, isn't it time we ended the 1953 war and take down North Korea.

I mean they have no good political stance like Iran does and is basically an evil dictatorship, where does that fit in Obama's new world order?

So what am I suggesting?

Breaking the cease fire, some 40,000 US troops are stationed near the Parallel while the North Korean army have something like 1,000,000 troops, I know they are not matching them man for man, remember the North Korean army look like this;



Think the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq (specifically Operation Desert Storm), the US had superior firepower not superior man power, the same would work against North Korea, analysis of its air force show mostly 1950's era Soviet aircraft with the exception of the 20 or so MiG-29 Fulcrums that are used to defend Pyongyang, that air force could be destroyed in round about a day with some help from the South Korean air force.



Followed by strategic bombing (which the Americans get to practice exactly what they have to do every single day), of troop concentrations and ground forces followed by an invasion by large forces of US troops and South Korean soldiers, Operation Unification would be a good name for it don't you think?

For instance Saddam Hussein was a bastard (no matter what way you look at it), and out of date documents showed that he was trying to acquire nuclear weapons, the UN Security Council was sure it was not, but there was a risk so the US launched Operation Iraqi Freedom and overthrew the horrible dictator, he had no WMD's however, but there was oil in Iraq.

10% of the worlds resources that is.

I know that must have been the coincidence of the century right?

However when North Korea tests a nuclear ballistic missile that could actually pose a threat its downplayed!