This time the Iran crisis has made everyone pay more attention to the current military strength of Iran . Some people say that Iran has a complete military-industry system and its military strength is very strong in the Middle East. So, are they right? How strong is Iran’s current military strength? In fact, those who say this do not seem to pay much attention to history or Iran’s latest military developments.
To be precise, Iran is only stronger than the current Iraq - because after the Gulf War in 1991, the subsequent blockade, and the Iraq War in 2003, Iraq has been completely defeated. The result of Iran's development over the past few decades is that the gap in military strength with the United States has further widened.
Why do they say they don’t pay attention to history? Is it because as early as the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), Iran dispatched twice the size of the army to fight Iraq, and suffered twice the casualties, but it was still slightly weak - with this kind of combat power, is it still very powerful?
3 years later, the "more powerful" Iraq was "abused" by the United States during the Gulf War. Iraq thought it was very powerful, but it was beaten to be a "blind" or "deaf". The United States has recorded almost "zero casualties" and defeated the Iraqi army - if it was against Iran at that time, if it was Iran's attack on Kuwait (this terrain would be the same), Iran would only perform worse than Iraq.
"death road" destroyed by Iraqi troops in the Gulf War
As the saying goes, the Middle East war is five scum, Iran is just the relatively strong of these scum. However, Iran also has one advantage, that is, it is that it dares to fight and fight, and it is not afraid of the United States and it still dares to fight. However, it is one thing to dare to fight, but combat effectiveness is another thing - for example, Niu Er, who was killed by Yang Zhi.
said that they do not pay much attention to military because the result of Iran’s so-called “perfect industrial system and strong R&D capabilities” over the past few decades is basically a copy of some Russian and American weapons and further improvements. As a result, the performance of these new weapons is still at the level of the United States and Russia in the 1970s and 1980s. In other words, the performance is similar to that of the US-Russian weapons that Iran and Iraq could buy in the 1970s and 1980s.
Iranian F-14 fighter
For example, as early as 1976, Iran won the most advanced F-14 fighter jets in the United States at that time and the most advanced level in the world; now, 43 years have passed, Iran's most advanced fighter jets are still these F-14s, and they are seriously aging. The "Lightning" fighter that Iran put into service in 2007 is just a 2.5th generation fighter; the F-313 stealth fighter that has appeared in recent years is at best a stealth attack aircraft similar to the US F-117, and it is much smaller in size and has a much worse stealth ability - and the F117 was put into service in the US in 1982. Therefore, the level of Iranian Air Force fighter jets has not made significant progress compared with the Iran-Iraq War.
Iranian F-313 stealth attack aircraft
In the early 1990s, Iranian navy bought three Russian Kilo-class submarines . The self-developed light and micro submarines, as well as frigates that initially have medium-range air defense capabilities, and basically nothing can be shown. However, its newly emerged " Persian Gulf " and " Hormuz " anti-ship ballistic missile are refreshing.
Iranian Army has made a lot of progress. For example, it is based on the Russian T-72 tank and borrows the technology of the Russian T-90 tank. The "Kalal" main battle tank developed is also quite like the T-90SM tank. The "Storm II" armed helicopter developed by Iran is quite similar to the US AH-1 armed helicopter.
Iran's main battle tank
What Iran is more proud of is its air defense missile unit and ballistic missile unit. Iran has the Faith 373 missile that imitates the Russian S-300 air defense missile , and the Sayyad-2/3 missile that imitates the US standard 1/2 missile, with a maximum range of 50-120 kilometers, basically reaching the level of the United States in the early 1980s and Russia in the mid-1980s.Moreover, Iran has also purchased four sets of Russian S-300PMU2 long-range air defense missiles, which are considered its ace force. In terms of
ballistic missiles, it has served the Meteor 3 series, Mudstone 2 series, and Horamshahr missiles, with a maximum range of nearly 2,000 kilometers. It is the main means for Iran to attack the US military and its surrounding countries' military bases. This is Iran's biggest progress.
Overall, Iran has made a lot of progress in air defense missiles, army heavy equipment, and ballistic missiles. However, due to the speed of development and blockade, the gap between its overall progress, especially in the Air Force, is getting wider and wider.
In fact, let alone Iran, except for China (maybe there will be India to be added later), the gap between the military strength of major countries and the United States is widening. Many people may often see the statement that the United States' military power is weak in some articles - the statement that people who do not pay attention to military affairs are fooling others.
Because of China, the US began to become relatively weak; because of China, the US military strength became relatively weak. But we must clearly know that this weakness is only relative to China.
As for why the United States does not fight, as mentioned above, the United States and Iran have fought a lot in the 1980s. Now, I just don't want to fight for the moment.
Author: Chenxi
