New Iranian MASAF rifle

[Gold Eagle]

Look at that lower receiver, it's M4 / M16, not HK. There's kits for M4 to use a HK-style upper, but you wouldn't call the modified rifle HK-based, you would call such M4-based. And ultimately the HK itself is based on M4 design.

MASAF enjoys a short stroke gas piston system, so its closer to the HK-416 rather than the typical AR family.

With respect, I'd very much be surprised to see these Iranian knock-offs put into "mass production." These sorts of projects tend to be busy work for Iran's engineers and machinists, while all the same rendering publicity of a political nature.

Iran-supported Iraqi PMF and FP use the real thing, which no doubt provide better performance and reliability. The Iranian P99, in particular, appears cruder than the Polish FB.

IRGC recently purchased AK-103 assault rifles, publicized AUG2016 at Tasnim News Agency. More recently same source touted their use during Imam Ali exercise. (I'd provide links but for the forum's minimum post rule.) Moreover this purchase indicates the direction of Iran's small arms procurement.

Iran has massive armed forces with many different factions with different needs. Ak103 has been purchased mainly to arm Basij and regular IRGC forces with a cheap, easy to use and maintain and also a reliable weapon. IMO It's a wise choice considering the purchase of local production licence too.
MASAF is the one for elite troops and special forces. And its gonna get mass produced just like the 2 previous generations of Iranian AR weapons, which have been mass produced!

 

[ilia]

 

[Stryker1982]

In case anyone was wondering. Slightly old news from a few weeks ago but...

https://twitter.com/x/status/981970361112776704

https://twitter.com/x/status/981976642758369281

Seems like MASAF is a go! (I think other brothers on pdf have also said the same). The guy also claims 100,000 were ordered! And also ordered by the marines which will have them soon.

Check out the rest of the tweet chain (More details).

 

[OldTwilight]

In case anyone was wondering. Slightly old news from a few weeks ago but...

https://twitter.com/x/status/981970361112776704

https://twitter.com/x/status/981976642758369281

Seems like MASAF is a go! (I think other brothers on pdf have also said the same). The guy also claims 100,000 were ordered! And also ordered by the marines which will have them soon.

Check out the rest of the tweet chain (More details).

Our Armed force is just ordering assault rifle base on their whim and they don't think about "support and Logistic" in the war time ...

now our regular troops of Army has one type of Assault rifle with special kind of calibre ( G3 )
our marine use another type of weapons
our IRGC is using Chinese Version of M16 , Fath , MASAF , AK-47 , Ak-103
Bassij is using Ak-47

just imagine all of these troops have to participate in single operation , then just providing their guns bullet is a complete nightmare ...

if you add Sniper , Anti Material , Hand Gun and Machine Gun to this , you can imagine that in middle of war , half of our troops won't have bullet !!!

this damn variety is true for almost all of our equipment which is increasing our cost of Training and maintenance and logistic and dramatically reduce our combat capability ....

this kind of thing is 101 of any military training .... even 3000 years ago , disciplined Armies were using same Sword , Spear , Armor , Shield for their troops to reduce cost of equipment and time of training ...


we are facing complete anarchy among our armed force ....

 

[Bahram Esfandiari]

Our Armed force is just ordering assault rifle base on their whim and they don't think about "support and Logistic" in the war time ...

now our regular troops of Army has one type of Assault rifle with special kind of calibre ( G3 )
our marine use another type of weapons
our IRGC is using Chinese Version of M16 , Fath , MASAF , AK-47 , Ak-103
Bassij is using Ak-47

just imagine all of these troops have to participate in single operation , then just providing their guns bullet is a complete nightmare ...

if you add Sniper , Anti Material , Hand Gun and Machine Gun to this , you can imagine that in middle of war , half of our troops won't have bullet !!!

this damn variety is true for almost all of our equipment which is increasing our cost of Training and maintenance and logistic and dramatically reduce our combat capability ....

this kind of thing is 101 of any military training .... even 3000 years ago , disciplined Armies were using same Sword , Spear , Armor , Shield for their troops to reduce cost of equipment and time of training ...


we are facing complete anarchy among our armed force ....

All those riffles you mentioned on your post still operate only 3 types of Ammunition. 5.56x45,7.62x39 and 7.62x51. That is nothing new for Iran's armed forces and even during the chaos of Iran Iraq war supplying 7.62x39 and 7.62x51 to the troops was not a major logistical issue!

 

[OldTwilight]

All those riffles you mentioned on your post still operate only 3 types of Ammunition. 5.56x45,7.62x39 and 7.62x51. That is nothing new for Iran's armed forces and even during the chaos of Iran Iraq war supplying 7.62x39 and 7.62x51 to the troops was not a major logistical issue!

what about Training cost , Cost of building and buying all these weapons in low number , Spare part , maintaining and ...
we have same problem in Air force while our Airforce operating F1 Mirage , F4 , F5 , F14 , Mig 29 , Mig 23/27 , Su 24 , Su 25 , Su 19/22 and ....

 

[Bahram Esfandiari]

what about Training cost , Cost of building and buying all these weapons in low number , Spare part , maintaining and ...
we have same problem in Air force while our Airforce operating F1 Mirage , F4 , F5 , F14 , Mig 29 , Mig 23/27 , Su 24 , Su 25 , Su 19/22 and ....

In terms of rifles I would argue it is cheaper to keep older rifles(AKMs,G-3s) for basij and combat support arms of the army and IRGC and build new rifles for the combat arms than it is to scrap literally millions of rifles and replace them with one type that does not fit everyone's requirements. Training soldiers on even a "sophisticated" new rifle takes very little time and the older rifles are even easier to train on. What takes time is learning how to shoot accuratly and it makes very little difference what rifle you learn to shoot on.
In my humble opinion the reason why the IRIAF operates so many types of combat aircraft is because;
a)Iran has no access to modern combat aircraft that can replace redundant types so it is forced to keep small fleets of similar role aircraft it possesses to have a large enough air fleet to meet its needs.
b)Even if Iran had access to modern combat aircraft it would be more effective to operate several types of specialized aircraft for specific roles than to pick a cost effective multirole aircraft that is a jack of all trades and a master of none. Plus your pilots would have to have their training be split up between the different roles and would not be as well trained as pilots that train for one specific role.
Just because something is more cost effective it does not mean that the capability it provides will also be desirable. At the end of the day you pay for what you get!