Qaher-313

Qaher-313 from Iran, produced by Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA)

Introduce:

The IAIO Qaher-313 (Persian: قاهر-۳۱۳; also Ghaher-313, Conqueror (Tamer)-313, Q-313, F-313) is a planned Iranian single-seat stealth fighter aircraft that was publicly announced on 1 February 2013. A press presentation about the project was made by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi on 2 February 2013, as part of the Ten-Day Dawn ceremonies.Independent experts have expressed significant doubts about the viability of the aircraft.

The aircraft design is a canard configuration. It is described as a stealth fighter built with advanced materials, a very low radar signature and with low-altitude operations capability. Qaher can carry either two 2,000-pound (910 kg) bombs, multiple smaller smart guided missiles, or at least 6 PL-12type air-to-air missiles. It features a downward wingtip device which Flight Global noted vaguely resembles the Boeing Bird of Prey prototype, but with a more faceted design similar to the 1970s-era Lockheed Have Blue that was developed into the now retired F-117 Nighthawk. Flight Global also said, “given the apparent small size of the aircraft and its single engine design, the Qaher 313 could be powered by reverse engineered variants of the General Electric J85 turbojet that Iran is known to have in its possession.” Iran has General Electric J85sas well as a dozen other jet engines as a result of old Northrop F-5s and other American aircraft in its inventory from pre-1979 as well as newer engines from Russia and China. Iran also builds various turbine engines like the Toloue-4 and Toloue-5 for its UAVs. Iran claims they have designed the aircraft using CATIA three-dimensional interactive design software and tested it using simulation software including Gambit numerical grid generation software, fluent flow analysis and simulation software, CFD models and that they have additionally tested the aerodynamics using small sized jet and propeller flying models.

There has been no independent verification of the status of development of this aircraft and some commentators have even claimed that the aircraft is a hoax, or a “laughable fake”.Media sources outside of Iran have raised the possibility that the demonstrated aircraft would not be able to meet stated performance and / or that it may be a scale prototype or mockup, with Cyrus Amini, a BBC News Persian Service journalistclaiming that the aircraft “looks like a cheap copy of the American F22”. Iran does not release technical details on its arsenals, so many of its claims about the aircraft are impossible to verify.