It was 1989 when my father decided to build the first supersonic military aircraft. Gandhi has an interesting example: “first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”. This story implies to any success, and it was also the case for building the fighter aircraft. First, they ignored the issue, then they laughed at it and then they started fighting and forming obstacles to the way. Nonetheless, the Azarakhsh project was successfully finished before the passing of my father.

The developed aircraft had the F-5 model due to its extraordinary performance in wars. Without a doubt, the best pilots and flight engineers of this aircraft have been Iranian. In addition, this aircraft was selected because of its remarkable records in wars. This aircraft was outstanding in the operation of Close Air Support, whether in close air wars or in ground operations. With this aircraft, we were even able to demolish the Iraqi MiG-25s, only some of which were brought down by our pilots of F-14s. In ground operations in a short range, many epics were made by pilots of Dezful and Tabriz bases. For instance, martyr Ardestani performed six air operations in a day, which was constantly repeated by other pilots. In addition, remarkable flight engineers worked on these aircrafts. Construction of each piece of aircraft inside the country leads to the operationalization of many grounded aircrafts.

In addition to its beautiful body and extraordinary maneuver ability, which caused problems even for our Tomcat aircrafts in close wars and ground practices. However, this aircraft had many disadvantages, including a radar and avionic system and a very basic weapon system, and just the air missiles of this aircraft were old Sidewinder heat missiles. In fact, there was no computer in this aircraft. It was practically no aircraft for night flight and its weak radar would cause several problems. Moreover, the ejection seat of this aircraft has been the cause of passing of several good pilots of Iran. Therefore, the systems of this aircraft had to be completely upgraded.

Construction of tens of thousands of pieces of this aircraft was initiated in 1989. I was involved in this process since its beginning despite the fact that I was a BSc student in Sharif University of Industry. However, everything has changed since that time, when it was only a few years of establishment of field of aerospace in valid universities and there was a significant shortage of experts in this field. A limited number of professors were working in this area at that time. In addition, our piece-making industry was not that advanced and we had no knowledge about high aerial standards. Furthermore, construction methods were complicated, specific alloys were not produced inside the country, and sanction problems had adversely affected the project.

However, there is nothing more important than innovation in the world. In order to solve this issue, a test pilot school was established next to Oj Factories that construct aircrafts. In addition, the president of this school was the late brigadier general Sadeghpour, who was known by the Americans. He was the first pilot in the history who recorded 1000, 2000 and 3000 hours of flying F-5 aircrafts in America. He was best teacher among F-5 pilots along the best pilots of the history, who had recently been released from the Iraq war. It was decided to install each modular of constructed pieces on a new aircraft to be tested by pilots in operative and hard conditions. After practical testing, the pieces were removed and seriously evaluated. Some of these tests included X-ray and mechanical tests.

This is how Azarakhsh was established and operationalized before the passing of my father. In addition, the consutrcted pieces were helpful in the flight of many aircrafts. A factory was also established to build the motor pieces. However, something else remained from Azarakhsh. It gave us the confidence to work on the construction of supersonic aircrafts. It formed a knowledge and trained human resources, who believed in their ability to build any type of aircraft. In fact, the aerial industry of Iran owes to Azarakhsh thinking.

To date, this project has had hundreds of outputs, only one of which is “Kosar”. The fact that we have a military aircraft that is completely constructed inside the country is a big accomplishment. However, what is more important is that an entire aircraft has been created in Iran. This new aircraft encompasses a navigation system, a fire control system, an airplane computer system and an avionic system with a fully domestic design and almost matching the fourth-generation airplanes. In addition, the airplane’s motor is completely produced domestically. Moreover, the old ejection seat is replaced with a completely upgraded seat with more than two thousand pieces. Furthermore, the maneuverability of the airplane has been improved. This is exactly happening on F-15, F-16, and F-18 airplanes in the Unites States. Yes, war taught us to have domestic models for aerial defense.

Americans would have never thought that we are able to use Tomcat airplanes as AEW&Cs. Our air force was able to stand against the air force of Iraq during eight years of war. The Iraqi air force changed four generations of airplanes during the war. First, they used MiG-19, MiG-21 and Sukhoi Su-17, and Tupolev airplanes, whereas it exploited the most advanced airplanes of MiG-29, Sukhoi Su-24, and Mirage F1 at the end of the war. However, they lacked innovation, which caused problems in hardship. History will never forget the aerial defense of Kharg Island. The strong fortress of Kharg exported oil until the end of war and there were carcasses of dozens of Iraqi aircrafts and helicopters around the island. In addition, the history will never forget the epic of pilots of Dezful base in the beginning of war and how they targeted Iraqi soldiers with F-5"s machine gun in the absence of ground forces and how they died protecting their homeland. 

Yes, “Kosar” is just one of the relics of Azarakhsh, which is a domestic model for air force airplanes, which covers many of our air defense weaknesses. Today, not only we are able to construct our own air defense airplane, but also we are able to upgrade the technologies and weapons of the existing aircrafts. The main achievement of this project is tens of knowledge-based companies with thousands of young experts, who have the knowledge for producing these products. More than 85% of the pieces of this airplane are produced by knowledge-based companies, who produce more novel projects every day to develop their products. Today, the defense management of the country has come to the conclusion that it should not produce a piece but must guide the projects and allow the youth to use their creativity to produce new products. In the end, this is the story of any success. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

I congratulate the success of this project to Amir Hatami and all managers of this valuable project, especially knowledge-based companies involved in the project. I hope to see more success in this area in the future.