Iran close to ordering 250 Su-30MK along with Mig-29/Mig-31

@unit88: The reason is simple powerpolitics: The US and her prime allies Israel and UK (France and Germany to a lesser degree) are f****** worried about the emergence of strategically independent (i.e. overtly or covertly nuclear armed) regional powers in the greater middle east. Consequently the US would lose most of her coercive power on Iran and Tehran's allies (a nuclear conflagration would take the price of conflict too high for both) and Israel her unfettered military hegemony in the region.

Subsequently a new strategic equilibrium in middle east would evolve since China probably with russian support would emerge as the second major power trading energy for economic investment, technological cooperation and eventually strategic protection. Eventually the US would have to seek a compromise with regional powers like Iran and also with their global rival China about the energy resources of the middle east.
(...of course that outcome would be a nightmare for every US administration and they will try to prevent this from happening at all cost. )

There can be no doubt that Iran and in the mid term Pakistan (post Musharraf of course) as well as in the long term also Turkey will be the dominant regional players. The US will have to decide how to ´manage´ this inevitable development...:coffee:
(hopefully ´birth pang´Iraq is not the ´model´ )

MKM version did used france and south africa avionics , will iran get approval for them? If The deal with russian really happen it's better to use fully russian part , no worry for spare part

I guess we'll have to wait for an official Janes Defence news brief on this development. Yes, I did research Debka as well, nothing but a bunch of propoganda. :nono: But the aviation weekly article does mention it too, but as somebody stated, with no procurement numbers. Maybe the Iranians are buying a mix of tankers and transport aircraft to make the full 20 IL-76?

250 flanker or mig is not that big of a number if you think about it, China had a deal for 200 flankers for license production. So dunno but my question is can Iran military budget pay for 250 flankers or mig cause it will be like 7.5+ billion dollar deal. So large amount of Iran budget will go to just purchasing aircrafts, not to mention maintance etc.

Unit88

what I dont understand is why you are so worried how other nations such as Iran arming themselves.

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The same reason I'm worried about Israel and Saudi Arabia getting increased military aid. It only increases the chances and the deadliness of war.

Why must everything military be taken as a threat?

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I don't know, maybe because the very existence of a military is a threat.

While I personally would love if the military was used for sport and game like many gun-owners use their guns in the U.S., that is not why the military exists. The military, by its very nature, is for killing. I don't think anyone with any sense of reality would disagree.

Couldnt sometimes a nation just protect themselves by buying weapons such as Iran, instead of attacking EU as you mentioned??

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Very few countries buy weapons for defense and buying long-range strike aircraft is certainly indicates Iran is not one of those countries. There's no need for the ability to have 250 fighters that can fly 8,000 kilometers away except offense.

Chengdu J-10

250 flanker or mig is not that big of a number if you think about it, China had a deal for 200 flankers for license production. So dunno but my question is can Iran military budget pay for 250 flankers or mig cause it will be like 7.5+ billion dollar deal. So large amount of Iran budget will go to just purchasing aircrafts, not to mention maintance etc.

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Like I said, I imagine this might be an attempt at reconciling their payments on Bushehr, possible in other areas as well.

Algeria recently had its debt to Russia forgiven in exchange for arms deals. Syria had much of its debt forgiven as well, and now they're entering into a lot of arms deals. Iran may be using a similar sort of idea for paying off Bushehr and maybe even future nuclear projects. Russia apparently wants to sell five more nuclear reactors to Iran.

After all, the company responsible for military exports and nuclear exports are both owned by the state so the money gets to them either way.

Guys,

This report is obviously false.. how would russia even believe that the Iranians could even afford that many.. 250+Tankers ?

I don't believe in coincidence... when this report came out, US suddenly announced that Pro-US allies in ME would get 20 Billions $$ in arms sales, Then Israel would get F-22/F-35. By now, If I gotten to know how things are run... It all for Israel.

Armed ME to the teeth so that Israel can have a reason to the real booty(F-22/F-35), and 30 billion aid.

mobydog said:

Guys,

This report is obviously false.. how would russia even believe that the Iranians could even afford that many.. 250+Tankers ?

I don't believe in coincidence... when this report came out, US suddenly announced that Pro-US allies in ME would get 20 Billions $$ in arms sales, Then Israel would get F-22/F-35. By now, If I gotten to know how things are run... It all for Israel.

Armed ME to the teeth so that Israel can have a reason to the real booty(F-22/F-35), and 30 billion aid.

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Easy answer: Oil money. Iran is swimming in oil.

Pointblank said:

Easy answer: Oil money. Iran is swimming in oil.

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. not quite correct. infact iran is itself facing a shortage of petrol.

Natural gas is iran's real wealth.

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nero said:

. not quite correct. infact iran is itself facing a shortage of petrol.

Natural gas is iran's real wealth.

.

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Nope.

A shortage of petrol means there is a lack of refining capability within Iran... not oil. You can pump as much oil as you want out of the ground, but if you can't refine it fast enough, its wasted effort.

Yes that is correct; Iran has the second biggest oil reserves (discounting Canada's oil sands) and the second biggest reserves of natural gas worldwide and they earned approximately 53 bn $ from their oil exports in FY 06/07 (up to 60 bn $ are forecast in 07/08).

So Tehran certainly has the necessary cash to buy some ´goodies´but as I have already predicted recently: Iran will concentrate her investments in domestically developed and produced technology. After all their strategic calculus is quite simple; even 250 Flanker's would not suffice to deter Israel effectively but a couple of IRBM's albeit mated with really ´effective warheads´would do the job nicely (... so where would you put your precious eggs in? ).