As covered yesterday, Iran proudly displayed its supposed new "stealth fighter," dubbed the Qaher F-313, or Conqueror-313. Since the unveiling of the plane, various reporters and defense experts have panned the aircraft as a fake.
John Reed over at Foreign Policy noted: " When I first looked at the plane Saturday morning, I could tell it was bogus. Look at the photos of the cockpit: there's barely any wiring. In fact, it looks like the Iranians dumped some rudimentary flight controls and an ejection seat into a shell molded in what they thought were stealthy angles."
Over the last several days, some interesting photos have been released that show various angles of the plane. Judge for yourself (comment below and let us know your thoughts):
Jonny
Why is it so SMALL?
moderateGuy
The Iranians think that's what makes it "stealthy"; it's too small to be seen by radar.
Kenneth
The cross section of this aircraft will get it killed…even by a MIG-21bis; seriously. It's time Iran went back to the drawing boards…
ToroVince
Brad
Well if its even a real plane, it is certainly not stealth. It looks like they used standard auto windshield glass or something for the cockpit glass, its completley clear and would let radar right into the cockpit, bouncing off everything in there. Those oddly shapped wings also look like they would reflect ground radar back down to the ground instead of dispersing it sideways….
To know if its a challenge to the U.S, just look at the room its being presented in. I wonder how much they had to pay to rent out the basketball court at Tehran High School for a night….
Brad
Actually, now that I look at it closer, it looks like a hockey rink, not a basketball court.
Ridiculing Is Their Style
Yeah, whenever any country achieves success in any field that "threatens" the US, its army of cyber troopers – read CIA trolls – march out to ridicule thier adversaries as is their standard tactic and instruction. How low has the US become. Their trolls. it seems, are their "best" PR machine. They signify probably, the decline of the "Holy" Washington Empire and its "civilization".
kelso
Halftime entertainment at the Tehran Ayatollah's vs the Tabriz Jihad finals. In this nail biter, the Jihad squeeked out a 86-85 victory in the final seconds on a 3 point play.
Emmett
Actally it is the Iranian's First Air Base. At first I thought there was controversy over the plane itself but now I see there is also controversy over the place
Hal Tejas
I bet the jet enegine is made in China. Good luck going on a dogfight with that!
djobert
It looks like plastic…! A big toy! I want one!
Jah
I'm skeptical of it being a full fighter for these reasons:
It seems awefully small to me – stealth fighters need to be beefy enough to hold usable weapons in their internal bays, and it also awefully short: High performance aircraft need to be long enough for afterburners to get good performance.
It also seems to have a very normal (and somewhat glossy) paint on its exterior – any serious effort at stealth would need special coatings.
Finally, the engine air intakes behind the cockpit are pretty small compared to other aircraft pictures I've seen – jet engines need lots of air and small intakes make that hard to provide.
It is possible, but only barely, that this is a real aircraft meant as a testbed and technolgoy demonstrator – but given Iran's record on military technology, I am doubtful it is operational at all.
Bob A Rebop
Does look really small. Any ordnance would probably have to be attatched to wings. Then it wouldnt be stealthy. Wings look short too.
G-man
Perhaps next time they will put the warning messages written on the fuselage in Farsi rather than English if they want to really make us believe its a real aircraft and not a prop.
Bob A Rebop.
Looks like it was molded from dry wall. Look at the sharp edges. looks like the marks left after you smooth out edges with dry wall tape and spackle.
JohnX
I guess everyone probably feels the Iranians are trying to pull a fast one on the rest of the World.
But heres a more likely scenario.
Your leadership wants a stealth plane. They wouldn't recognise one if it jumped up and bit them and you know you cant make one. But thats not what they want to hear, so you build a good fake.
They are pleased and so they leave you alone. The leadership probably feel they can flick a nuke on it and fly it into Israel. You know its never going to fly but so what, its hopefully so far in the future you will die of old age before they try to test it.
If it doesn't work as a stealth then you blame it on the pilot or the rader operator, by then you have got out of dodge.
miki lebon
Probably out as an asylum seeker in America already!
djb
Likely a fake all told. If you look at the canopy, the plastic is very rippled, the visibility out of it would be terrible. Also, if you look at the 'pilot' when he's sitting in the cockpit, and compare it to when the canopy is closed, his helmet would be hitting the canopy. Not going to comment on the other design details, other than to say there's lots of things there that make no sense if it was real. One last thing, it's either got no engine in it, or it's not got thrust vectoring, and since it's too small to be a fighter / bomber, that lack will cripple it in an air superiority role.
MJG
Probably fake, the wing tips themselves have the potential to create all sorts of turbulence and other air problems.
boat builder
As a boat builder i can tell you its made from fibre glass and filler ( bog )
in the shot looking into the cockpit you can see the stringer ( strengthing beam ) on the inside.
and it looks exactly like it would on a fibre glass boat. same size and shape.
it even looks like its been painted with flow coat in thge inside
any one thats works on boats would recognise it straight away.
Siddhant Hasabnis
never underestimate the enemy. for all we know the fighter jet may be a hoax,but till there is no credible intelligence it is better to be on your toes.specially with countries like iran,china etc who are extremely secretive about their armed forces.it may be just a propaganda stunt but still never underestimate the enemy.
Shaun W
Ah, so they nicked my old fibre glass kayak. Bar-starreds!!!! International Court!!! I want it back!
makoy
I think it's just something they moulded. Anyone can do that in the workshop. I wanna see it fly first. I bet the engine is from a Honda law mower.
Vijaym
Well if Iranian's claim to have developed a stealth fighter, why should we quibble about it.It is meant for their AirForce and if it is a fake it only adversely affects them.If it is publicity stunt the losers are the Iranians themselves eventually.
I really do not think any nation is going to queue up to buy an Iranian stealth fighter in the forseable future, so why worry about its genuineness!
Finally the Iranians have to do prototype testing, flight testing, airworthiness certification,weapon evaluation tests and avionics performance evaluation etc .That is an entire gamut of pre-induction tests that need to be carried out before it becomes an active and credible weapon platform.
Lets wait for the Iranians to prove the aircraft!Till then it is a protype-like many prototypes-some succeed, many others fail!
Adam
Even if they managed to make it look convincing, there's no way Iran would be able to afford a stealth fighter program with all the sanctions and the majority of their resources being devoted to their nuclear program.
JR
The 'Boat Builder' is right. Ring frames and foam to stop the larger panels flexing when the pilot (read most normal looking bloke in the airforce) leans on it! You can see the chop strand mat (1970's GRP cloth) used to create the under carraige box behind the ejector seat. Bet 'Boat Builder' also thought it looks more like a hydroplane than an airplane. They should stick an outboard on it and have a go in the gulf.
major lowen gil marquez
The Iranian leadershipwanted to show that they have a stealth fighterjet to the dmocratciand freedom loving citizen of the world, actually in my own analysis that kind of show window is a fake, its a part of the iranian art of deception, If everits a planenot a stealth one, its capability were very poor because the fule thank were designed only for a one hour travel time, it is more on propaganda deception and only the communist and dictatorship country will going to believe such child play…
Schminner
They'll probably put it up on ebay without a refund policy ….
Thirel Dalof
It's so stealthy, no one has ever seen it fly. So don't knock it until it gets shot down.
TonyE
A stealth speedboat to tow fundamental water skiers
Mike
Ok. Basic Common sense here. A Stealth Aircraft's purpose is to go undetected…So the First thing you do is tell your enemy about it and show him pictures ?? this has got to be the stupidest PR Stunt ever. One would think that creating a stealth bomber would require great intelect….Telling your enemy about requires total stupidity …
QUDS1
This aircraft is impressive: First, it a 2/3 scale model so its RCS is 2/3 the size. How's that for low obervablity! Also it can attack ground targets by self immolation by sucking pieces of its plastic intakes through its engine showering hot bits of model glue and plastic on the ememy!
Graham
I'm sure it will float ok…..it is a boat isn't it ??
DON
stealt built with fibre glass how fast can it go on high speed, the pilot should know that he's on suicide mission, or irananian government just want to place themself on news line?, well is ok hence russian are quiet for now make WHITE HOUSE BLOOD RISE TO RELEASE more burdget for their defence,
psycological warfare.
Kelly Johnson
Hat's off to the Iranians! A 3rd generation stealth airplane made out of recycled plastic water bottles. The US military should follow their lead on responsible environmentalism.
Airman Malone
doesnt the body look like cardboard that has been painted? it looks like it will fall apart if someone leans on the side of it. fake!
Craigy
Two things stand out to me. 1. The intakes are really small which seriously reduces engine performance and 2. the main gear doesnt look right in terms of size. The wings look like an adaptation of TSR2. Will be interesting to see if this aircraft actually gets airborne
Steve
I can see the benefit…the jet fuel savings alone (what could it hold 100 gallons max) should allow them to buy some pretty cool weapons from Toys R Us…
Alex
it is not in true scale and the pictures are from a model which displayed in a ceremony
JK
Small plane, big cockpit. It will be easy for HUD to target the fully exposed pilot instead of plane. Maan… the pilot must wear a bullet proof vest & camoflage uniform, and paint his face like arnold to be fully stealth compliant ! Yes, air intake looks like straw for the size of plane & who knows advanced technology… rest of the intake duct could be stealthly hidden below the pilot seat (advanced afterburner) !
Stizzle
These comment jus shot this plane out the sky. Try again iran, this time use metal
Alan
One of the things that's not well-known outside of Iran is that President Ahmadinejad is a big Clint Eastwood fan. As such, he regularly holds "Eastwood All Night" parties at his house. He obviously used the plane in Firefox as the starting point for this plane…minus the cool jets, cool pilot helmet, and cool "just think of rockets in Farsi, and they'll automatically launch" technology.
pc
BONDO!
hans
Looks like the pilot has to sit on top of the radar (if any) in this thing…
Frederick Melick
It might be a sign of things to come.todays fake is tomorrows reality.
MilTech
Just a couple of observations.
First: The skin is not smooth, not even close. They must not be aware of the boundary layer turblence issue. I don't think paper mache' works as a stealth material.
Second: I think it would be very difficult just to see through that canopy with all the distortion well enough to fly the plane, much less trying to spot an enemy bogie coming in at Mach 1.
Third: This is supposed to be the epitome of Iranian technological skill developed all on their own. So, why are all the warning signs on the cockpit, the air intake covers and above the air intakes in English??
Gotta throw the BS flag on this one. Maybe between the space flights their Astromonkey had time to build this?