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Eight months inside Sepah. [ personal history ] Day -4: This is it In Iran, every man (or boy) has to perform military service when he turns 18. You can postpone it if you are accepted into university, but eventually it must be done and now, having finished years of academic study, it is my turn. Of course, there are ways to avoid it -- if you have a serious illness, if you are the caretaker of your family, if you are the only male child and your father is over 59 years old, and some others that I don't...

The idea that nuclear weapons will usher in an era of peace and security for the Islamic Republic is likely to prove to be nothing short of an illusion—even if Ayatollah Khamenei’s regime succeeds in averting a military strike against its nuclear installations before it reaches its military goals for its nuclear programme. History has shown that there are many countries against the idea of a powerful Islamic Republic. In 1979, the newly born Islamic Republic of Iran was armed to the teeth with sophisticated US military technology that had been purchased by the Shah, making it a regional military...

The Iranian military announced Monday that it tested a new air-to-surface missile during war game exercises under way in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian Gen. Mohammad Allawi said in a Monday interview with the semiofficial Fars News Agency that the missiles were tested as part of an effort to examine the abilities of the Iranian military and their missile systems. "The new missiles have been loaded onto the army's fighter jets with changes and updates in their parts," he said. "They had a fully successful performance today." The general added the missile system was designed to enhance the ability to...

Iran was said to have encountered difficulties in modernizing its Air Force. The U.S. intelligence community has determined that the Iranian Air Force was hampered in several areas of modernization of its 1970s-era U.S.-origin platforms. The Defense Intelligence Agency assessed that the Air Force was blocked in such areas as airborne early-warning and control as well as precision-guided munitions. "The IRIAF [Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force] remains largely dependent on 1970's-era U.S. aircraft like the F-4 Phantom II, the F-14A Tomcat, and the F-5E Tiger II," DIA said in a report titled "Iran's Military Power." The report, released to...

Leading U.S. military officers and strategists have assessed that Iran no longer fears a military attack by Washington. A symposium by U.S. Central Command and the Washington Institute for Near East Policy concluded that the leadership in Teheran does not fear the prospect of an American military strike. The participants in the joint conference asserted that the Iranian concern over a U.S. attack dissipated in 2005 when Washington was seen as heavily engaged in neighboring Afghanistan and Iraq. "From 2002 to 2005, Iran sought to prevent UN Security Council action on the issue, believing that resolutions or similar measures would...

Top Iranian military officials vowed to defy the nation's Islamic rulers if ordered to use force against protesters in the wake of last year's disputed election, according to documents obtained by the Washington Examiner. The Iranian military officials signed a document protesting force that was used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard during the June re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The petition, written in December, was titled, "Declaration of Support of the Iranian Army Leadership and Personnel in Support of the People." The document suggests deep internal divisions in Tehran over the sometimes brutal suppression of Iranians who claimed that...

Note: Photos included. SNIPPET: "The representative of Ali Khamenei in the IRGC, Mojtaba Zolnour, said that the maneuvers were meant to convey a message of peace to the neighboring countries. The head of the Qatari military delegation, 'Abd Al-Rahim Ibrahim Al-Janahi, who was present at the maneuvers as an observer, said that Qatar would like to benefit from Iran's military expertise and carry out joint maneuvers with it." SNIPPET: "Source: Fars (Iran), April 25, 2010; Press TV, Fars, IRNA (Iran), April 24, 2010; Al-Alam (Iran), April 23, 2010"

With defense and acrimony building in the Persian Gulf, Iran announced plans to test a new laser-guided bomb. Iran's Fars News Agency reported that a prototype of the 2,000-pound smart bomb would be tested "in the near future," the country's air force commander Brig. Gen Hassan Shahsafi said. He said the smart bomb, dubbed Qassed-2, had a longer range and better vision than its earlier version, the Qassed-1. That weapon made its debut four years ago and has since then been in mass production. Qassed is interpreted as "messenger." It was not immediately clear how advanced the prototype is and...

A few hours after the official demonstration marking the February 11 anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei stated, "Was the presence of tens of millions of motivated and aware people in the festival of the thirty-first anniversary of revolution enough to awaken [to their mistakes] the internal enemies and deceived individuals who sometimes hypocritically speak of 'the people'?" Khamenei had spent months worrying that the opposition Green Movement would hijack the anniversary. Yesterday, he seemed to regain his self-confidence by proving that he could manage Tehran's streets. In light of this development, how will the Supreme...

Discovery of Iran's secret uranium enrichment facility near Qom several months ago is a "warning sign" for anyone who thinks that the Islamic Republic's nuclear program is for civilian purposes, head of Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin said Tuesday. Speaking at a conference on security challenges in the 21st century at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Yadlin said that Iran is extremely close to mastering the necessary nuclear technology and will wait on the threshold until it feels that the international community is too weak to stop them to move forward towards the bomb. Iran, he...

In late November, Iran conducted a five day exercise to see how well its air and ground forces could defend against an air attack. The results were not what they expected. Israel has been threatening such an attack if Iran does not halt its nuclear weapons development. The Iranian exercise had air and air-defense units go through the motions of dealing with a hostile air strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. The Iranian generals who organized the exercise were surprised at how uncoordinated and ill prepared their forces were for such an attack. Communications were spotty (due to equipment failures and...

•Iran is vigorously pursuing several missile and space programs at an almost feverish pace with impressive achievements. The Iranians have upgraded their ballistic missiles to become satellite launchers. To orbit a satellite is a highly sophisticated endeavor. It requires proficiency in stage separation and advanced guidance and control systems to insert the satellite into a stable, desired trajectory. They took the Shahab, extended it a bit, added a new lightweight second stage, and now they have the Safir space launch vehicle. The very capability to build a two-stage satellite launcher, rather than the usual three-stage rockets for space-lift vehicles, is...

Note: The following blog entry is a quote: Blog Details Iran Air Force Schedules Week-Long Maneuver Iran's Air Force is slated to hold a week-long drill to test its mastery of low-altitude flight operations and bombing tactics in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman. The “Milad-e Nour-e Velayat” aerial drill, which will begin in the coming weeks, will involve Iranian fighter jets and interceptor aircraft performing combat operations over a distance of 3,000 kilometers in four stages. "Our domestically-produced Saegheh fighters and Russian-made Sukhoi-24 jets will stage tactical operations to test new ammunitions and hone their offensive capabilities," said...

Note: Photo included. April 19, 2009 Iranian snipers wearing their full camouflage kit marched in the Army Day parade outside Tehran yesterday. They were addressed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who praised them for preserving the region’s stability and security.

Iran to Launch Home-Made Submarine, Destroyer TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian army's naval commander said that the country is due to launch a home-made destroyer and a submarine on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters in a press conference here on Saturday, Admiral Habib Sayyari further pointed to the production of missile-launching PT boats by the navy, and added, "A home-made destroyer called 'Jamaran' and a (home-made) submarine of 'Ghadir' class will launch operation on November 28." He further stressed that his troops are closely monitoring military moves of trans-regional powers in the region, and said, "No move in the Sea of...

A group of Western military experts, who carried out a recent in-depth study of Iran’s high-sounding war games and scary weaponry, has concluded that they are largely a show is put on to conceal a poorly-equipped, under-trained military and elite Revolutionary Guards corps. DEBKA-Net-Weekly 293 revealed on March 16 some of the eye-openers found by those experts, when they took a close look at Iran’s Great Prophet Maneuvers One and Two and the Zolfaqhar Blow war game staged at the end of 2006 and early 2007. They homed in on the dozens of rockets and missiles claimed to have been...