Iranian Ground Forces | News and Equipment

[TruthHurtz]

I think he means Karrar project

Speaking to the state TV on Thursday night, Commander of the Iranian Army Ground Force Brigadier General Kiomars Heidari said the Defense Ministry and the Armed Forces have jointly developed an Iranian T-90 tank.

The homegrown tank is much more advanced than the Zolfaqar tank, he noted, saying the Iranian T-90 is undergoing final tests before being delivered to the Army Ground Force.

Pointing to seven new features of the new T-90 tank, the general said it is equipped with a new gun stabilizer and chemical defense systems.

The homegrown tank has turned into a weapon for modern warfare, General Heidari noted, saying the Army Ground Force will take delivery of the first batch of the tanks in the Iranian month of Mehr (September 22 - October 21).

He further pointed to new strategies for employing modern military equipment proportional to the new structure of the Army Ground Force.

The Army Ground Force will start using three new types of machine guns, the commander noted, adding that the Army is also going to replace the G3 rifles with a new battle rifle developed by the Iranian Defense Ministry.

Iranian military experts and technicians have in recent years made great headways in manufacturing a broad range of indigenous equipment, making the armed forces self-sufficient in the arms sphere

I think T-90 and Karrar are essentially interchangeable at this point given the similarities. May actually point to Russian involvement.

The new 'battle rifle' is intriguing, another 7.62 main battle rifle. Wonder if it's a rifle we've already seen like Zolfaghar or Siavash. May actually end up being similar to Turkey's MPT-76 in the end.

 

[Mithridates]

I think T-90 and Karrar are essentially interchangeable at this point given the similarities. May actually point to Russian involvement.

The new 'battle rifle' is intriguing, another 7.62 main battle rifle. Wonder if it's a rifle we've already seen like Zolfaghar or Siavash. May actually end up being similar to Turkey's MPT-76 in the end.

it seems like Russian defense minister said to Iranian counterpart: look we can't sell you t-90 as it's against UN resolution but i can tell you Putin is mad of our economy and i have some blueprints here in my desk.

but it's shocking that they want to replace g-3s, i'm sure they can fire for few decades.

 

[Hack-Hook]

it seems like Russian defense minister said to Iranian counterpart: look we can't sell you t-90 as it's against UN resolution but i can tell you Putin is mad of our economy and i have some blueprints here in my desk.

but it's shocking that they want to replace g-3s, i'm sure they can fire for few decades.

call me old fashioned but when I was conscripted with G-3 I actually could hit target , with AK-47

 

[sha ah]

Turkey finally replaced the G3 a few years ago with a Hk416/M16 derivative
I've seen some decent looking prototypes (Fateh, Masaf) in Iran during the last few years however despite rumors there hasn't been any real effort to switch to a modern platform.

I think one issue is whether Iran should stick with NATO rounds and if yes whether Iran should stick with the current 7.62x51mm or the smaller but more accurate 5.56x45mm round

Then there's the issue of whether the IRGC and Basij paramilitary units will adopt the same rifle as the regular army.

call me old fashioned but when I was conscripted with G-3 I actually could hit target , with AK-47

 

[TruthHurtz]

Turkey finally replaced the G3 a few years ago with a Hk416/M16 derivative
I've seen some decent looking prototypes (Fateh, Masaf) in Iran during the last few years however despite rumors there hasn't been any real effort to switch to a modern platform.

I think one issue is whether Iran should stick with NATO rounds and if yes whether Iran should stick with the current 7.62x51mm or the smaller but more accurate 5.56x45mm round

Then there's the issue of whether the IRGC and Basij paramilitary units will adopt the same rifle as the regular army.

5.56 is good for western military's because the enemies they are facing 99% of the time don't wear body armour. Iran's enemies (Saudis, Israelis, Americans) do. You have to take into account Iran-aligned militia groups as well who are more likely to engage these groups.

 

[Mithridates]

call me old fashioned but when I was conscripted with G-3 I actually could hit target , with AK-47

hk g-3 possibly is the best battle rifle ever bade, it's very reliable unlike what we Iranians think (possibly because we always compared it with ak-47). there are videos online comparing it with ak and ar-15 also in other mud tests which g-3 performs better that steyr aug and the rest of them... however g-3 is heavy and not much shooter friendly.
regarding the inaccuracy of the ak-47 the main culprit is it's recoil spring:

compare it with ar-18 recoil springs:

in ak-47 while the gas piston pushes the bolt backward due to the bigger radius of spring compared to guiding rod, the bolt slightly pushes the the rod in random directions so it's hard to target accurately.

5.56 is good for western military's because the enemies they are facing 99% of the time don't wear body armour. Iran's enemies (Saudis, Israelis, Americans) do. You have to take into account Iran-aligned militia groups as well who are more likely to engage these groups.

actually another reason why our military and possibly westerns like the 5.56 rounds is that it has an effective firing range around 500 meters while terrorist groups like jond allah or pjak (which IRGC countered in past) and others mostly used ak-47 which had 350 meters range and they didn't have Kevlar waists. it's why IRGC used several models of it and intended to develop it's own 5.56 fateh rifle.
however i still prefer 7.62*51 rounds for all of our armed forces, because first of all we produce it in large quantity and it has the same or more range than 5.56 with extra energy. turkey had the similar feeling toward their mpt-76 as we did to our sayyad rifles when fighting against terrorists.

 

[sha ah]

Realistically Iran seems to have reverse engineered all the various components / parts of the G3 and with a good scope the G3 is supposed to have an effective range of 600m but adding scopes to a rifle that's so outdated seems pointless and wasteful to say the least.

Because of the recent economic downturn I'm guessing that Iran's military is going to be stuck with the G3 for quite a bit longer but realistically sooner or later they're going to have to choose a new standard service rifle.

From everything I've seen, it seems as if they're leaning towards the AR-15/M-16 style. The HK 416/HK-417 seems to be a good candidate but the question is will Iran's NEW main service rifle end up using a NATO round ? It doesn't seem practical, especially for marketing / export to Iran's allies or potential clientele.

One option is to modify something like the HK 416/417 to shoot a Soviet/Russian round. Either 7.62x39mm or 5.45x39mm ? Of course from a marketing / distribution standpoint, the larger Soviet/Russian round is much more popular. Also the Chinese have developed their own round for their service rifle (5.8x42mm). However it's not so easy to change the cartridge size for a rifle that has already been designed for a specific round. It could lead to problems and would require alot of testing to perfect.

Turkey recently made a copy of the HK417 (7.62x51mm) which is a larger caliber version of the HK416 (5.56x45mm). Ironically the first incarnation had the smaller NATO round but their army was so used to the larger NATO round that they ended up mass producing the larger caliber version in the end.

I guess in the end it all comes down to preferences. I'd be happy to see Iran adopt a knockoff of the HK417/HK416 like the MASAF rifle. From an economic standpoint the HK417 would make more sense since they most likely already have a large stockpile of 7.62 cartridges, but let's see what happens.

actually another reason why our military and possibly westerns like the 5.56 rounds is that it has an effective firing range around 500 meters while terrorist groups like jond allah or pjak (which IRGC countered in past) and others mostly used ak-47 which had 350 meters range and they didn't have Kevlar waists. it's why IRGC used several models of it and intended to develop it's own 5.56 fateh rifle.
however i still prefer 7.62*51 rounds for all of our armed forces, because first of all we produce it in large quantity and it has the same or more range than 5.56 with extra energy. turkey had the similar feeling toward their mpt-76 as we did to our sayyad rifles when fighting against terrorists.

 

[Draco.IMF]

@yavar

brother, whats your opinion on this T-90/Karrar thing
Iran need to buy T-90? or only parts (engine) of it?
Karrar is being built with russian help?

 

[skyshadow]

IRGC Ground Force to Get Fotros Drone

https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2020/04/26/2251602/irgc-ground-force-to-get-fotros-drone

 

[Hack-Hook]

IRGC Ground Force to Get Fotros Drone

https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2020/04/26/2251602/irgc-ground-force-to-get-fotros-drone

well it seems at last we managed to find a more potent engine for this drone so building it now is feasible .
wonder what the final spec would be

 

[Messerschmitt]

So the IRGC will get both the Fotros and the yet-to-be-revealed MQ-9 sized Shahed-149.

 

[Philosopher]

Interesting they went with Fotros over the IRGC's own Shahed-129. I can understand the Mojaher-6, given it is a cheaper alternative than Shahed. I assume Fotros is either cheaper or with considerably more potent capability than the Shahed, perhaps both.

 

[husseinibnali]

So the IRGC will get both the Fotros and the yet-to-be-revealed MQ-9 sized Shahed-149.

I would say the shahed-149 is for aerospace division and not for ground forces as it has been designed to carry Bina 2 laser guided bombs as well as glide bombs like Balaban and Yasin.
Not to mention short range air to air missiles.Im not pretty sure it will be in aerospace forces service but I’m taking a sensible guess.

The question if the shahed-149 will replace the shahed-129 or it will support it in operations?

Of course assuming the shahed-149 will be in aerospace forces service and not the ground forces service.

 

[Mithridates]

Interesting they went with Fotros over the IRGC's own Shahed-129. I can understand the Mojaher-6, given it is a cheaper alternative than Shahed. I assume Fotros is either cheaper or with considerably more potent capability than the Shahed, perhaps both.

larger drone=larger payload. if our drones could drop MK-82/83 bombs we would not ask Russia to assist us. there are numerous footage show ISIS and HTS terrorists hiding in houses and artillery, RPGs and tank shelling does not neutralize them. only a bomb can do the job.

 

[Philosopher]

larger drone=larger payload. if our drones could drop MK-82/83 bombs we would not ask Russia to assist us. there are numerous footage show ISIS and HTS terrorists hiding in houses and artillery, RPGs and tank shelling does not neutralize them. only a bomb can do the job.

I am quite sure Fotros has better payload capability than Shahed, but I am very dubious that its payload capability would be that much more. We need to wait to see the specs of the Fotros. IRGC could also develop a dedicated Jet engined UAV bomber in the future based on what it learned in Syria. Matter of fact, supersonic UAV bombers will play a big role in the future so we need to make development in that area quickly.