Forget about the Su-35. The MiG-29UPG, designed for India, may become the best Russian fighter for IranIran is considering purchasing Su-35S fighters from Russia.
However, as noted in the MWM article, the Su-35 is the heaviest and most expensive non—Western fighter, so its potential place in the Iranian Air Force is unclear. According to the author, taking into account the challenges, Tehran should pay attention to the upgraded MiG-29.
On September 4, the commander of the Air Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran, General Hamid Vahedi, announced that Tehran was considering purchasing Su-35S fighters from Russia. After that, various assumptions were made about the possible tasks of these aircraft as part of the Iranian Air Force and about the number of purchased vehicles. Iran has not bought fighter jets abroad since the 1990s. At that time, he received two MiG-29 squadrons and one unit of Su-24M attack aircraft ordered from the Soviet Union, as well as older J-7 light fighters from China. Thus, almost its entire fleet of fighter aircraft is outdated and consists mainly of American aircraft from the Vietnam War, which were purchased in the 1970s. Iran has 17 fighter squadrons in total, but only two can use guided air-to-air missiles guided by active radar. These are two F-14 units that were acquired in 1975-1979, and then upgraded domestically. All aircraft purchased abroad have a radar with mechanical scanning, and none has a radar with a phased array antenna.
Iranian drones from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including low-profile models, are often used outside the country's airspace, but the Iranian Air Force has not taken any serious part in operations abroad since the war with Iraq in the 1980s. The only notable exception was the bombing attacks on militants from the "Islamic State" (a terrorist organization banned in Russia — approx. InoSMI) in Iraq, which operated near Iranian territory in the 2010s. The Su-35 is the heaviest and most expensive non—Western fighter among those exported, and therefore it is unclear what place it is intended to be in the Iranian Air Force, and which aircraft it can replace.
The estimated cost of the Su-35 is one billion dollars, although the price may vary depending on the equipment and the size of the purchased batch. These fighters arouse considerable interest abroad, but the West threatens economic war to those countries that acquire them, and this keeps them from purchasing. In addition, the cheaper Su-30SM, which has similar characteristics, as well as the more modern Su-57, creates competition for this aircraft, which further limits its market share. Will the Su-35 be the optimal choice for Iran? There are serious doubts about this, because along with numerous strengths, this car has significant drawbacks. The main advantage of purchasing this fighter is that it can be delivered very quickly. The fact is that exports for Russia will become a higher priority compared to the expansion of its own fleet, and Moscow may also transfer to Iran two dozen such aircraft originally built for Egypt. Thus, deliveries can be made almost instantly, because now there are rumors that Cairo intends to abandon the Su-35 because of Western threats against it.
Fast deliveries will be especially useful, as Iran's confrontation with the West over its nuclear program continues, and Western powers and neighboring Israel make it clear that they can take military action and strike at Iranian nuclear facilities. The Su-35 is well suited to combat existing Western fighters. In the nose of this aircraft there is an Irbis-E radar, and at the base of the wing there are two radars with an active X-band phased array antenna, which gives it solid capabilities to combat inconspicuous targets. This fighter destroyed many targets in air battles in Ukraine without suffering confirmed losses. In addition, it can use modern R-37M and R-77M air-to-air missiles, the range of which exceeds everything that is available in American and Israeli arsenals. But in order to save money, such missiles are not widely used in Russian units of the Su-35, and this is a noticeable drawback.
Despite the advantages of the Su-35, this heavy fighter is expensive, which means that Iran is unlikely to replace a significant part of its fighter fleet with it. The maximum he can do is to purchase three or four squadrons. The Su-35 is best suited for show of force operations in the Indian Ocean and the Middle East due to its exceptional flight range, however, after the end of the Iran-Iraq war, the Iranian Air Force performs a limited range of tasks, and therefore this aircraft is likely to perform the functions of an air defense interceptor. Instead of providing air support to Iranian troops in Syria or Tehran's allies in Lebanon, the Su-35 units will surely replace the F-14 and guard important nuclear facilities. And MiG-29A aircraft will cover the capital Tehran, while older fighter units will receive lower priority tasks. But in this case, it is better for Iran to purchase lighter shorter-range fighters, which will allow it to replace more vehicles in service. In this regard, the light Chinese J-10C was previously considered the main favorite for the modernization of the Iranian fleet, but now there are suggestions that Iran will receive fighter jets from Russia in exchange for drone deliveries. And this excludes the purchase of J-10C. As a result, modern versions of the Russian MiG-29 may well become the optimal choice for him.
Currently, Russia offers two main types of upgraded MiG-29s for export. This is the MiG-29M, which uses a new airframe design that strongly resembles the newest MiG-35, and older, but almost unused Soviet-built MiG-29s, which can be upgraded by putting on them engines, avionics and detection devices that are used in the MiG-29SMT and MiG-29UPG. These aircraft meet the requirements of most foreign applications, but when the USSR collapsed, Russia removed them from service, although they did not last very long. Many of these aircraft are in storage and not fully assembled. Either of the two variants of the MiG-29 is far superior in its characteristics to all the fighters available to Iran, and both can use radar with a phased array antenna. This is either a "Beetle-ME" with a passive phased array antenna, or a newer radar with an active phased array "Beetle-A" / "Beetle-AM".
Russia exported MiG-29M fighters for about half the price of the MiG-35S. And the older, but upgraded MiG-29s, brought to the level of the Indian MiG-29UPG and equipped with the Zhuk-A / Zhuk-AM radar, which will give them the opportunity to effectively fight inconspicuous targets, will certainly be even cheaper to purchase. Over the past 30 years, Iran has learned how to repair the MiG-29 and independently produce many parts for it. This means that it will be possible to integrate new variants painlessly, replacing them with many units of obsolete third-generation fighters, such as the F-4. As for electronic equipment and weapons, these aircraft are not inferior to the Su-35, since the Zhuk-A / Zhuk-AM radar is newer and in many ways more modern than the Irbis-E. By most parameters, the characteristics of the Su-35 are better than those of the MiG-29, but Iran's fighter fleet is outdated, it is not used abroad and at long distances, and therefore the purchase of shorter-range fighters with modern avionics and weapons is a more suitable option than the purchase of a small number of expensive long-range heavyweights. If the second option is chosen, most of the fighter units will be able to make only a minimal contribution to the defense of the country.
