Iran’s at it again with the smoke and mirrors

Iran seems to be in the habit of lying in its teeth about its military hardware and preparedness. Readers will doubtless recall the edited photograph released by the Iranian armed forces some years ago, purporting to show four missiles being launched, but which was rapidly unmasked as a fake.

At the Army Day 2010 parade, held last Sunday, Iran did it again. In the parade were vehicles purporting to be carriers for the Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missile system:

These immediately raised huge question marks, because Russia hasn’t yet delivered the S-300 systems Iran has ordered! Also, the vehicles don’t look anything like the dedicated missile carriers used by Russia, and supplied with the missiles to other customers:

Careful analysis of the images by Ares shows that the Iranian vehicles’ ‘missile tubes’ are, in fact, welded-together sections of oil drums, mounted on Bakr-series tank transporters. Needless to say, there are no missiles inside, and the S-300 radar and control vehicles are nowhere to be seen. It seems Iran wants to mislead at least its own citizens about its armament and military preparedness. I don’t think their enemies (most particularly Israel) would have been fooled for more than a second or two!

This, of course, begs the question: why is Iran doing this? South Africa did the same in the years of apartheid, claiming that some of its new weapons systems were indigenous when it was clear to any informed observer that they were of foreign origin (most notably the Minister-class missile boats, which were clearly of the Israeli Reshef or Sa’ar 4 class, complete with Israeli Gabriel II missiles [known in South African service as the Skerpioen, or Scorpion]; the R-4 service rifle [a license-built copy of the Israeli Galil]; and the Cheetah development of the French Mirage III fighter-bomber, which was clearly built along very similar lines to Israeli-modified Mirages). The claims didn’t fool anyone except the uninformed, so making them seemed pointless, to say the least. Iran’s in the same position now, presumably trying to hoodwink its own population by keeping them uninformed, but not fooling anyone who knows military hardware. I don’t see any point to it, quite frankly.

There were other interesting sights in the Iranian parade, including this mock-up of a ‘concept stealth fighter’ (which, with its outsize top air intake plus two ventral intakes, would be anything but stealthy!):

There were also these ghillie-suit-clad soldiers, looking for all the world like a Wookiee battalion out of Star Wars!

One wonders what the Iranian military authorities hope to achieve with such nonsense. All they appear to be doing is making themselves look like idiots to the rest of the world!

Peter