Military news

Iran's defence minister - BG Vahidi - recently made the announcement that the maritime patrol version of the Iran-140 (An-140 produced in Iran) has entered production and will be delivered to the armed forces "in the near future", this, according to Iran's PressTV . As of Fall 2010 Iran's assembly plant had turned out nine Ir-140s with more rumoured to be on the way (1) While these are all suspected to be the basic transport/liaison variants, Iran has touted several different configurations for the aircraft over the years - including models outfitted for AWAC, personnel training, EW, geological survey, cargo/personnel transport, VIP transport, paratrooper deployment as well as, of course, maritime surveillance. (2) HESA advertises that their aircraft can be used for: detecting targets both on and below the surface, search and rescue, countering smuggling, piracy and terrorism, protecting fisheries and other resources, pollution monitoring, maritime traffic policin...

Sometimes the best information comes from the lest expected places. In this case, the first shots of the interior of the Zulfiqar-3 turret came not from a new, public expo or documentary, but from a poor quality, many-year old video that gave us the first images of the Mobarez. In fact, screenshots from the video are frequently seen around the web. But upon closer examination, a turret belonging to the Zulfiqar-3 can also be observed undergoing some form of work. While it appears to be under construction, there does appear to be some form of camouflage already applied to the exterior which would only indicate a heavy overhaul (since paint schemes are applied at the end of the process, not half-way through. Regardless, several key features confirm it's identity. 1) Lifting eyes - visible on the lower-right side of the structure 2) Turret ring - visible on top of the structure 3) Gun mount - visible through turret ring. Man in the tan-coat is pointing directly at it and the gun mantl...