Identifying Iranian Mortars - A Guide

 
 



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77th Mechanized Infantry Division

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The 77th mechanized infantry division (MID) is a regular army unit based in the Khorasan province in north-eastern Iran. At the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war the 77th was comprised of one armored brigade and two mechanized brigades; at the time they were armed with M-47 tanks and BTR-50 APCs. At this time the 77th maintained one infantry battalion and one armored company in Khuzestan. (1) While a complete history of their operations during the war remains unknown, the 77th is known to have participated in the following operations, Fath ol-Mobin (March 1982)(2), Ramadan (July 1982)(3), Badr (March 1985)(4), and Karbala-6 (Early 1987)(5). Today, little is known about their current operational status or capability. They still maintain three brigades; the first is in Mashhad, the second in Quchan, and the third in Torbat Heydariyeh. (6) Anthony Cordesman asserts that Iranian mechanized infantry divisions like the 77th are composed of: (7) - one armored brigade - three mechanized infant...
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Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Headquarters (PADAJA)

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Overview : The Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters is the branch of the regular Armed Forces (Artesh) responsible for providing strategic and operational-level air defense over the country, as well as much of the tactical air defense for other branches. [1] For brevity's sake, the HQ is hereafter referred to by its infrequently-used Persian acronym, PADAJA ("پدجا "). It is more commonly referred to, especially in English-language media, by the acronym for the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Defense Force (IRIADF). The headquarters was first formed in 1992 to coordinate the respective air defense efforts of the Artesh and IRGC. In August 2008 the HQ was promoted to its current status as an independent branch and given full command over the relevant units and their equipment, including the Artesh Air Force's radars, SAMs, and AAA. [2] Today, the PADAJA is organized geographically. Operational control at the national-level is provided by a hardened air defense operations...
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81st Armored Division

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 Edit (08/23/14) - The following information is outdated and is in process of being updated. ---  I am trying out a slightly different format for this post. Instead of attempting to describe everything in the text and being forced to use clunky directional adjectives (ex: "200 m south-west of the western-most garage), I am now directly annotating the screenshots from Google-Earth which will hopefully allow a much more precise analysis of imagery. --- The 81st armored division is based in Iran's Kermanshah province on their border with Iraq. Naturally they were among the first forces to come into contact with the invading Iraqi army in 1980. At the outbreak of the war, their three brigades in Kermanshah, Sarpol-e Zahab and Eslamabad Gharb were outfitted with Chieftain MBTs and M113 APCs. (1) Today the situation is less clear; some evidence suggests that one of these brigades has been moved to a base nearer to Kermanshah in Bistoon. (2) There are, however, two unaccounted-for ar...
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