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The Bani-Hashem Armored Complex Following the conclusion of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988, the new president of the Islamic Republic– Hashemi Rafsanjani – was tasked with rebuilding a shattered country. Not least of all, this meant rebuilding the Armed Forces's depleted inventories. Reflecting the broader shift towards pragmatism that took place during the Rafsanjani administration, Tehran turned towards the USSR to rebuild it's armored forces, the same state whose deep fear of Khomenei's revolutionary ideology drove it to back Saddam's Iraq to the hilt during the eight-year war. Following a handful of deals in 1989, and 1990 a major agreement for the production of armored vehicles was signed in 1991. Mikhail Barabanov, in a 2006 issue of 'Moscow Defense Brief', describes the deal: "The fourth and the largest ($2.2 bln) contract was signed on November 13, 1991 for the licensed production in Iran of 1000 T72S tanks and 1500 infantry fighting vehicles, as well as

The 37 th independent armored brigade is one of the Army’s three original independent armored brigades, its 3Xth designation contrasting to those brigades more recently formed under the Samen Alaeme reorganization, which use a 1XX, 2XX, or 3XX based designation scheme (ex: 188 th IAB). Neither the identity of the current commander, nor the garrison's name is known. Historical reports frequently mention the brigade in descriptions of the Fath al-Mobin Operation (March 1982), which was among the first of the major Iranian counter-offensives in the Khuzestan region. Although the Iraqi Army – particularly its armored forces – suffered heavily, the details of the 37 th IAB’s contribution is unknown beyond the fact that they shared an operating area with the Army’s 1/92nd AB, the 55 th ABB, and a number of Sepah brigades and battalions. [ Source ] Today, they are garrisoned 15 km south-west of the city of Shiraz in the Fars province, which would presumably put it under the command o