I had a feeling you would say that and I don't think it's applicable. The Iranian armed forces have not been doing much fighting at all. The most direct fighting it has seen was with small NOHED and IRGC units, as well as UCAV operations. The vast majority of the work has been done by the SAA and allied militias.
Anyway, I don't think Cooper was referring to Iran's fighting capability. He was saying the procurement process is a mess, which it is.
IRCG is part of the armed forces. I am fully aware that the Quds( operations abroad),IRCG units, IRCG advisors, their allies which consisted of Hezbollah, all Shia forces, and NDF have been the backbone of all the fighting. There are plenty of articles and videos that show afghans, hezballah, and others doing the fighting.Then you add the Russian air power which was one the most significant deciding factors and you have a complete picture.
I have read dozens of articles with credible sources that state by 2013, 75% of SAA had defected and abandoned their posts.This is characteristic of Arab armies. So when you hear the SAA, it is all for show.
As for Tom Cooper, in his article he insinuates that the armed forces are mess. The following are quotes from his article:
"Many influential Iranians are at least skeptical of Moscow’s reliability. But foremost, any Iranian-Russian arms deals must contend
with a more fundamental problem — the very system of rule in Iran"
"The result is a completely dysfunctional chain of command and totally unworkable decision-making processes."
This is hardly the reality. The army and IRCG have distinct rules. If everything is such a big mess as he claims, then the arms industry would not have been able to provide so much for all the fighting groups. I am not saying Iran provided everything, but they provided the bulk in Syria.
"For similar reasons — and because the IRGC’s current priority is saving Assad’s dictatorship in Syria— an order for Su-30s is presently unlikely."
Do you really think that it was IRCG sole decision on supporting Assad, or do you think that it was a matter of national security that if ISIS which was created and supported by international heavy weights such as Israel, US,Uk were to succeed, then we would have a huge problem at our borders.
His article is clever and misleading. There is no doubt of the corruption and incompetence , but hardly how he paints the picture. We Iranians collectively have a cultural problem of fierce competition among ourselves. You notice our individual achievements are a lot of times unmatched inside and outside of Iran, but as a group we have long ways to go.
