Iranian army stages war-game on western border [PIC]

[Dinky]

Countries need foreign reserves because without it other countries wont invest into your country it acts as a security blanket for foreign investment especially in a country like Iran so you can't bring that money home so easily but you can transfer it into countries that do have equal amount of investments inside Iran so if it ever gets confiscated you can freeze their assets too! And massing foreign reserves without relatively equal amount of investments coming in is a mistake in my opinion!
Also, since Iran's Purchasing Power is much greater than it's GDP (nominal) you get more bang for your buck if you invest on domestic companies & RD


As for the military in politics in Iran political parties mean next to nothing when it comes to weapons acquisition! It's the action of individuals that matters! Since the Iran-Iraq war only 2 presidents have actually been able to properly manage weapons accusation & development. Rafzanjani & Khatami and they were both from different political parties!

Sadly in Iran the politician are not being truthful to the people and constant showboating of military capabilities is giving the illusion that they are spending a lot of money on weapons acquisitions when in reality they are not! And talking about the weaknesses of the military is a Taboo for Iran's media and all these combined leads regular people in Iran to be badly misinformed to a point that most are under the delusion that Iran's military is stronger than the Turkish Military! Some don't even know that even the UAE is spending 2-4 times of what Iran is spending on weapons acquisition!

Plus how you spend the money is extremely important and in Iran bad management and corruption combined has led to the fiasco we are in today!

Some Iranian general like to boast about how we have a 10 million man military(Basij Force) as if that's a capability to be proud of rather than a threat for the country! And anyone capable of doing simple math can see that simply feeding 10 million people during peace time is a threat that severely effects the countries ability to acquire weapons!

If Iran gives 5 Million man & women part time volunteer Basiji reserves only $80 a month($2.6 dollars a day) in benefits, supplies & equipment during peace time that would = $4.8 Billion a year & $48 Billion after a decade with NO added capabilities to Iran's military!

and on top of that If Iran pays 1 Million active personal an average of $400 a month (Paycheck +Benefits) that's another $4.8 Billion a year (This includes reservists & retirees benefits & pay)
Add these two together and Iran is paying $9.6 Billion USD for nothing & no added capabilities in the span of time!

And it doesn't matter if not all the cash is going out of the Defense budget at the end of the day this is what the government is paying in one form or another in paychecks or in benefits rather than weapons acquisition!

Where as a smart government would have only paid ~$3 Billion on paycheck and benefits during peace time for a smaller but better paid($600 per month ave), armed, equipped & trained military & you do job placement programs in the government or defense industry for those who choose to be reservists and have served a min of 6 years to act as your reserves & so their retirement gets passed off to another entity and you spend the rest on added weapons accusation & filling up the storage facilities for war time!

That's $6.6 billion a year & that may not sound like a lot but it adds up threw time let me show you
$6.5 Billion a year =
$1.5 Billion a year on various Missiles (That's 1,500 $1 Million USD missiles or 750 $2Million USD missiles a year)
$1.5 Billion a year on Fighter Jets (That 15 $100 Million USD fighter jets a year 150 in a span of a decade 300 in a span of 2 decades Ideally after the 1st decade & before the jets become useless you start adding 15 per year to storage as you buy new ones & constantly adding to your storage)
$250 Million on Large Aircrafts (1-2 per year)
$250 Million on Helo's

$1.5 Billion for Army & IRGC ground equipment as follows:
$150 Million a year on Tanks that's ~70 $2Million USD tanks a year 700 in a span of a decade
$150 Million a year on IFV
$150 Million a year on APC
$150 Million a year on towed artillery, SP artillery & Rocket Artillery
$150 Million a year on Jeeps & various unarmored ground vehicles of various types
$150 Million a year on Unguided Infantry Support Weapons , Morters, RPG,....
$150 Million a year on ATGM & MANPAD
$150 Million a year on various unmanned ground Vehicles & robots
$150 Million on Guns, Ammo & Body armor
$150 Million on command and control, Optics, Coms, computers & electronics

$500 Million for UAV's
$500 Million for Naval accusation (Ship, subs, speed boats,...)
$500 Million a year on Air Defense equipment
$100 Million a year on new bases, ports & storage facilities

And that's just $6.6 Billion that should have gone towards acquisitions rather than paychecks or benefits! So you see how you choose to spend your money is also important! And $10-$12Billion USD on yearly weapons accusation will go a long way in building up your forces and since you have your own military industry that's a lot of jobs with the added benefit of the cash getting recycled into your own economy

Sadly when it comes to weapons acquisitions both this government & the previous government have failed the people and that's 12 years of absolute failure & bad management and sadly NO political party in Iran is actively talking about this!

I know right, I cant believe how many times I have seen these Iranian commanders boast about how strong Iran's military is but they never ever complain, this taboo of never showing weakness has a detrimental effect. In the United states, the generals and politicians love to complain to the media and the media spreads it around to the masses. In turn it becomes a hot topic for elections and congress and effectually they increase the defense budget. I don't believe i have ever seen an Iranian general complain, If they don't complain the media never pick it up and politicians never care about it and the people believe it isn't and issue or in this case with the generals always boasting, it leads to some stupid people on TV thinking Iran's military is godlike and spending top much. This finally leads to why Iran has such a damn low defense budget.

By the way, is there a country that has equal foreign investments in Iran.

As for the military in politics in Iran political parties mean next to nothing when it comes to weapons acquisition!

Id like to disagree to this point. Political parties mean a lot to defense. Its the parties that have the power to vote to increase the defense budget, Its the parties that can help convince the people that Iran's military is weak and its military budget is lacking. Just look to the United States politics and you will see the Republican Party has been very successful in that.

 

[VEVAK]

I know right, I cant believe how many times I have seen these Iranian commanders boast about how strong Iran's military is but they never ever complain, this taboo of never showing weakness has a detrimental effect. In the United states, the generals and politicians love to complain to the media and the media spreads it around to the masses. In turn it becomes a hot topic for elections and congress and effectually they increase the defense budget. I don't believe i have ever seen an Iranian general complain, If they don't complain the media never pick it up and politicians never care about it and the people believe it isn't and issue or in this case with the generals always boasting, it leads to some stupid people on TV thinking Iran's military is godlike and spending top much. This finally leads to why Iran has such a damn low defense budget.

By the way, is there a country that has equal foreign investments in Iran.


Id like to disagree to this point. Political parties mean a lot to defense. Its the parties that have the power to vote to increase the defense budget, Its the parties that can help convince the people that Iran's military is weak and its military budget is lacking. Just look to the United States politics and you will see the Republican Party has been very successful in that.

The whole point of the Media is to post facts and question why! Iran's TV news outlets have failed the country on both counts & most other news outlets for one reason or another never ask the right questions! And when a countries press isn't being used as a frontline tool for checks and balances then bad management and corruption will continue! And that is a fact in any country!

As for political parties what you say would only be true if the media hadn't created the illusion that Iran's military was a fully funded untouchable monster!


So yes political parties can most definitely make a difference BUT unfortunately the atmosphere created by the media doesn't allow them to do so publically!

When most people in Iran live under the delusion that Iran is spending massive amounts of money on it's military & is mass producing and massing various types of Tanks, IFV, Helo's, Ships, Subs, Aircrafts,.... in large numbers on a yearly bases due to miss information being fed to the people by the Media the atmosphere created is not an atmosphere where you can publically advocate for increased funding for the military!

Also, as I explained how you spend the money is extremely important! Most principlists support increased funding as long as the funding goes directly towards increasing or better funding the Basij Force but that's directly because that's where most of their base is (Voters) but the fact is such a policy not only does not increase Iran's military capabilities but hurts Iran's ability to acquire weapons and mass an adequate amount of weapons in storage in the long run!

As technology grows the number of troops you have becomes less relevant!

Today a two man crew sitting in a fortified bunker can operate multiple unmanned ground vehicles in a 2-5km radius each armed with 2 ATGM's well hidden across your boarders that can pop out of a well hidden bunker and engage an incoming armored battalion without putting anyone at risk and technologically it would be well within Iran's capability to mass produce in large numbers at relatively low costs!
And in the long run it's far more economical to mass such weapons than it is to constantly pay large number of paychecks during peace time!

Iran produces 30 MILLION tones of steel on a yearly bases most of which is under the control of the government so refusing to divert a small fraction of it towards weapons production on a yearly bases when you have both the expertise and tools to do so is strictly the result of corruption

with 15 years of US threats and massing of troops around Iran any responsible government in the past 15 years would have at the very least massed 8,000 artillery pieces, added 1000 new Tanks, 4000 IFV/APC, +10,000 armed unmanned ground vehicles, 200 new fighter jets, 15,000 Missiles of various types, 100,000 light armored or unarmored vehicles of various types, added ~300 new Helo's,.....
In a span of 15 years this could have been achieved with relatively limited funding with +90% domestically produced and the fact that they haven't with the amount of money Iran's government has just shows how deep the corruption is

 

[Stryker1982]

The whole point of the Media is to post facts and question why! Iran's TV news outlets have failed the country on both counts & most other news outlets for one reason or another never ask the right questions! And when a countries press isn't being used as a frontline tool for checks and balances then bad management and corruption will continue! And that is a fact in any country!

As for political parties what you say would only be true if the media hadn't created the illusion that Iran's military was a fully funded untouchable monster!


So yes political parties can most definitely make a difference BUT unfortunately the atmosphere created by the media doesn't allow them to do so publically!

When most people in Iran live under the delusion that Iran is spending massive amounts of money on it's military & is mass producing and massing various types of Tanks, IFV, Helo's, Ships, Subs, Aircrafts,.... in large numbers on a yearly bases due to miss information being fed to the people by the Media the atmosphere created is not an atmosphere where you can publically advocate for increased funding for the military!

Also, as I explained how you spend the money is extremely important! Most principlists support increased funding as long as the funding goes directly towards increasing or better funding the Basij Force but that's directly because that's where most of their base is (Voters) but the fact is such a policy not only does not increase Iran's military capabilities but hurts Iran's ability to acquire weapons and mass an adequate amount of weapons in storage in the long run!

As technology grows the number of troops you have becomes less relevant!

Today a two man crew sitting in a fortified bunker can operate multiple unmanned ground vehicles in a 2-5km radius each armed with 2 ATGM's well hidden across your boarders that can pop out of a well hidden bunker and engage an incoming armored battalion without putting anyone at risk and technologically it would be well within Iran's capability to mass produce in large numbers at relatively low costs!
And in the long run it's far more economical to mass such weapons than it is to constantly pay large number of paychecks during peace time!

Iran produces 30 MILLION tones of steel on a yearly bases most of which is under the control of the government so refusing to divert a small fraction of it towards weapons production on a yearly bases when you have both the expertise and tools to do so is strictly the result of corruption

with 15 years of US threats and massing of troops around Iran any responsible government in the past 15 years would have at the very least massed 8,000 artillery pieces, added 1000 new Tanks, 4000 IFV/APC, +10,000 armed unmanned ground vehicles, 200 new fighter jets, 15,000 Missiles of various types, 100,000 light armored or unarmored vehicles of various types, added ~300 new Helo's,.....
In a span of 15 years this could have been achieved with relatively limited funding with +90% domestically produced and the fact that they haven't with the amount of money Iran's government has just shows how deep the corruption is

Mostly the issue of having a ignorant population, who very very foolishly believe our commanders that we are somehow a great military power, with depleted ground and air forces. 14 billion budget with half of it going to sepah. which means artesh has 7 billion, what is that good for, just paying wages of 500000 people right???

Iranians foolishly believe we are a great power in part of our media and our commanders lieing to our people. And i feel bad for our soldiers because I know they will be annihilated in any real conflict. Because our soldiers are expendable, and they do not care for their families, or loved ones, not even enough to ensure standardization of body armor, for at least non-conscripts. Not enough to protect our border guards, our front line men with MRAPs (typhoon) when transporting, and they'd would rather have our army travel around in pick-up trucks like the Taliban so they can get ambushed with zero protection. We lost 10 comrades in an ambush near Pakistan, and what has happened as a result? Hichi!!!!!!!!


Our commanders and leaders talk about how proud they are, but their are either liers or idiots, and I hope they are liers. Like they show our Cobras and talk about the power of Iran, but they will never show a Russian Ka-50 would they, because we'd be a joke. Show Iranians a Russian military exercise and show them ours, we look 40 years behind. Its really a joke, all in part of corruption and I don't understand why they don't wanna give larger budget. Is it to pocket more money? This is nothing less than treason, disrespect to our brothers in the military, an betrayal of the safety of our nation. I want their heads on a stick.

 

[VEVAK]

Mostly the issue of having a ignorant population, who very very foolishly believe our commanders that we are somehow a great military power, with depleted ground and air forces. 14 billion budget with half of it going to sepah. which means artesh has 7 billion, what is that good for, just paying wages of 500000 people right???

Iranians foolishly believe we are a great power in part of our media and our commanders lieing to our people. And i feel bad for our soldiers because I know they will be annihilated in any real conflict. Because our soldiers are expendable, and they do not care for their families, or loved ones, not even enough to ensure standardization of body armor, for at least non-conscripts. Not enough to protect our border guards, our front line men with MRAPs (typhoon) when transporting, and they'd would rather have our army travel around in pick-up trucks like the Taliban so they can get ambushed with zero protection. We lost 10 comrades in an ambush near Pakistan, and what has happened as a result? Hichi!!!!!!!!


Our commanders and leaders talk about how proud they are, but their are either liers or idiots, and I hope they are liers. Like they show our Cobras and talk about the power of Iran, but they will never show a Russian Ka-50 would they, because we'd be a joke. Show Iranians a Russian military exercise and show them ours, we look 40 years behind. Its really a joke, all in part of corruption and I don't understand why they don't wanna give larger budget. Is it to pocket more money? This is nothing less than treason, disrespect to our brothers in the military, an betrayal of the safety of our nation. I want their heads on a stick.

Corruption in the military is quite limited that's why by the most part they don't want to fund the military and that's why they don't wanna increase the budget! Also, bad management in the way they fund the military has more of an effect than the corruption! All countries have corruption a few hundred individuals pocketing a million USD a year has little effect overall.... And it really isn't more than that in the military & MOD combined! Most of the corruption is outside the military and that's why they don't wanna fund the military!

It's low budget, bad management and the way they have structured the military that's causing problems!

And when your weak militarily you make it easy for countries like the U.S. to threaten you constantly! But if Iran had spent only $10 Billion per year on weapons acquisition in the past 15 years Iran's military would have looked a lot differently than it does today and threatening the country wouldn't have been so easy

And yes Iranian military commanders are proud that Iran technologically can produce a wide range of weapons systems at home at an affordable price BUT many of these systems don't go into mass production due to a lack of funding

And yes Iran may not be able to build an Attack Helo as good as the Ka-50 BUT for the same price of the Ka-50 Iran can build 1 Cobra + 2 Shahed 278 Helo's equipped with the capability to guide and control 2 armed MALE UAV's + 2 armed MALE UAV's
OR 2 Shahed-216 or cobra's
Or 1 cobra + 2 armed Simorgh UCAV

What's important is that you understand your shortcomings and try to make up for them with equipment that you can manufacture!

It makes no sense to have a low defense budget in a country capable of producing a large portion of it's own weapons because more spending = more technological & industrial growth both in the civilian and military sector = more jobs = more money being fed to your economy = increased number of skilled workers!

So in my opinion the more you spend the better off you'll be both in the civilian and military sector
And if it was up to me I would be spending at least $20 Billion per year on acquisition alone with 90% being strictly domestically produced