The actual Kowsar-88 wasn’t ready for display this August, so Tehran simply took an old, very well-known jet fighter and claimed it was a new one, in full view of domestic and international audiences that would know better.
Fast forward and we are again greeted with headlines for yet another “100% indigenously made” fighter jet, this time a “state of the art” two-seater called the Kowsar. And yet it appears identical to an F-5F Tiger II two-seater jet.
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Though influenced by the F-5, the prototype is a different airplane and is much shorter.
Here s What You Need to Remember: The irony is that Tehran doesn’t need to be ashamed of its resourceful use of old jet fighters. In the nine-year-long Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s, Iranian fighter pilots fought one of the most intense air wars in recent history defending their home soil.
In February 2017 I published an article on the Iranian Saeqeh (“Thunderbolt”) fighter. Billed as Iran’s first domestically-built jet fighter to enter operational service, the Saeqeh.
Fast forward and we are again greeted with headlines for yet another “100% indigenously made” fighter jet, this time a “state of the art” two-seater called the Kowsar. And yet it appears identical to an F-5F Tiger II two-seater jet.