How long since Iran acquired theirs, though, and were they purchased new? Or were they produced in Iran? — Iran manufactures their own copies of the Bell 212 and Bell helicopters. These are known as the Shabaviz 2-75 and the Shabaviz 206 respectively. I’d ride one... at gunpoint.
(Years ago I did engineering lab work with Iranian students. THAT was “enlightening”. Ya’ couldn’t beat those guys at doing math in their heads, though.)
My post 82 is a correction to my earlier post regarding the Iranian choppers. They do produce at least some copies, themselves.
I also worked with some Iranian students. Fairly bright people, but I was pretty much always aware that they were on student loans and a return home would guarantee the loans would not be repaid.
Though one of them did a tour of duty in the Iranian Army during the Iran/Iraq war, spent X months on the Basra front and rotated out on leave. He didn’t return, left the country, and it was possible he could not go home. It was never clear to me.
Good technical minds from those two kids. Understood The System of the university for foreign students. [Note, university loves them. Non resident tuition much higher]
Overall, nah, if these guys were technically incompetent there would be no reason to sanction them for anything. We’re just generating another multi-generational enemy. They have the #2 largest natgas reserves in the world, behind Russia. Not a great enemy to make.