Who Will Fly Iran’s New Russian Su-35s?

Iran will soon receive 24 factory-fresh Su-35 Flanker-E fighter jets that Russia initially built for Egypt, according to Western intelligence sources. Iranian pilots already reportedly received training in Russia over the spring. But which Iranian pilots will ultimately fly them – those serving in the regular air force, the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF), or those serving in the IRGC-AF, the air arm of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps paramilitary?

Whoever ends up flying them could prove significant. Since taking power in 1979, the incumbent Islamist regime in Tehran has never trusted the regular army or air force. That’s why it built up the IRGC as a loyal, parallel armed force that has long since outgunned the regular military. Iranian pilots who served in the pre-revolutionary air force were imprisoned, tortured, and even executed by the country’s new rulers. The regime kept others alive only because it needed them to fight in the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88).

Aside from procuring Chengdu F-7 fighters from China during the 1980s, post-1979 Iran only made one significant fighter procurement, in 1990 when it bought MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter jets and Su-24 Fencer bombers for the IRIAF from the Soviet Union.

Since then, it has not ordered any new planes. In 2015, the IRIAF reportedly wanted at least 30 Su-30s to upgrade its aging fighter fleet but was overruled by the IRGC, whose priority at that time was helping keep Syria’s embattled President Bashar al-Assad in power.

But time has steadily taken its toll. Much of the IRIAF’s fighter fleet still consists of American aircraft acquired in the 1960s and 1970s. A series of recent crashes resulting from accidents and technical issues demonstrate that this fleet cannot remain airworthy forever, never mind keeping adequately up-to-date approximately half a century after entering service.

Tehran’s decision to seize a rare opportunity to acquire brand-new fighters could be an acknowledgment of this reality rather than a sign that it trusts the IRIAF more or has plans to supply the IRGC-AF with these jets.

“They’ll most likely serve in the national air force (IRIAF),” Farzin Nadimi, a defense and security analyst and Associate Fellow of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told me. “They’ll most likely be of a specially trusted cadre of the air force, like those of the Su-24 72nd Squadron.”

Nadimi doesn’t see the procurement for the IRIAF as a sign that the IRGC or the regime has any more trust in the regular air force.

“It’s mainly because the IRGC can’t handle modern fighter jets and lacks the infrastructure and organization,” he said. “Despite having a small fleet of Su-22 attack aircraft, the IRGC’s air force is mainly built around ballistic missiles.”

The IRGC-AF has never operated more advanced aircraft than those vintage Soviet-era Su-22 Fitter or Su-25 Frogfoot attack planes — ex-Iraqi warplanes that fled from Operation Desert Storm to Iran in 1991, which Tehran promptly confiscated. The IRGC-AF returned the Su-25s to Iraq in mid-2014 to help Baghdad fend off the threat posed by the rampaging Islamic State (ISIS) group.

In July 2018, Tehran revealed it had overhauled 10 Su-22s. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the IRGC-AF commander, claimed that the jets were now “able to carry and use smart and pin-pointing cluster bombs, air-to-ground and air-to-air missiles and transmit data and information from drones from a several-kilometer distance.”

Still, as Nadimi noted, the IRGC has focused more on developing ballistic missiles alongside various armed drones rather than conventional air power. In the event of a major regional war, these older Sukhois will, at best, play a supporting role for IRGC operations that rely heavily on these drones and missiles and, in the case of naval operations, fast attack craft and speedboats.

The newer Su-35s in IRIAF service will likely, as previously outlined here, serve to bolster Iran’s air defenses rather than participate in any offensive operations outside Iran’s national airspace.

Acquiring these jets in the coming months could permit the IRIAF to finally retire some of its oldest fighters and stave off terminal decline — at least for now.