Iran unveils ‘domestically built’ fighter jet

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.

The fighter jet, dubbed the “Kowsar”, was unveiled by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who claimed that Iranian military experts had designed the fourth generation jet.

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”.

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”.