TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Arabic-language spokesperson made fun of Iran for unveiling its “indigenous” new fighter jet, which turned out to be an old American war plane.
Iran presented the aircraft a defense confab in Tehran on Tuesday, saying the Kowsar was a “fourth-generation” fighter, with “advanced avionics” and multi-purpose radar, the Iranian state-affiliated news agency Tasnim said. It added that the jet was “100-percent indigenously made.”
However, experts soon noted similarities between the plane and the F-5 fighter jet, designed by Northrop-Grumman in the 1950s and utilized by the U.S. military in the 1960s. Five years before the Islamic revolution, Iran purchased F-5s from America in 1974.
“The Iranian regime unveils the Kowsar plane and claims that it is ‘the first 100% locally-manufactured Iranian fighter jet,’” Netanyahu’s spokesman, Ofir Gendelman, wrote on Twitter. “It boasts about its offensive capabilities. But I immediately noticed that this is a very old American war plane (it was manufactured in the ‘50s). It is from the F-5 class of jets which has not been in use for decades.”
In western countries, the F-5 series is mainly used for training purposes.
In 2013, Iran was mocked for unveiling the Qaher F-313, billing it as the “first” domestic fighter jet, which was later discovered to be a miniature plastic model.
Iran’s State TV showed the Kowsar apparently about to take its maiden flight but the broadcast was cut before the plane actually took off.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said the unveiling was a “natural reaction to an economic crisis.”
In this photo released by official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani is briefed by an air force pilot as he sits in the cockpit of a fighter jet, before an inauguration ceremony of the aircraft, Iran, Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2018. Iran on Tuesday displayed a new twin-seat fighter jet it says is all Iranian-made and which allegedly has advanced avionics and fire control systems. Defense Minister Gen. Amir Hatami stands at second right. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)
“The Iranians are feeling very pressured by the continued US sanctions and in reaction they are coming out with these things, but we also shouldn’t dismiss it,” Liberman told reporters.
At the defense show, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the Islamic Republic’s military capabilities were the only thing stopping the US from attacking it. He added that under President Donald Trump, the US was becoming increasingly isolated from the rest of the world — even its allies.
“We should make ourselves ready to fight against the military powers who want to take over our territory and our resources,” Reuters quoted Rouhani as saying in a state-televised speech.