Iran’s unveiling of what it says is its first “domestically designed and produced” fighter jet has been overshadowed by claims that the aircraft is actually a re-purposed US-built fighter from the 1970s.
However, CNBC reports that aviation experts were quick to dispute Iran’s assertions, with many claiming that “the design is that of the US-made F-5F jet, first built in the early 1970s”.
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Joseph Dempsey, a research associate for Military Balance, a defence and military analysis group, took to Twitter to show a side-by-side comparison of the US-built F-5 and Iran’s new fighter jet (pictured above).
The Jerusalem Post notes that Tehran bought “104 F-5As and 23 F-5Bs in 1972 from the United States and 166 F-5E/Fs four years later”.