Babak Taghvaee reports on the negative impact of Islamization on the operational readiness of the Iranian Air Force
Since 1979, April 17 or 18 has been celebrated in Iran as Army Day, during which all branches of the army forces, including the air force, take part in parades around the country. After two years of absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Iranian Air Force (IRIAF) finally held an air parade in south Tehran. Unlike previous occasions, only five aircraft participated in the flypast. The small number of flying aircraft in the parade has drawn criticism for the poor performance of the commander-in-chief of the IRIAF, Brig Gen Hamid Vahedi.
The IRIAF has always performed flypasts during the Army Day parades, being held with an average number of 50 aircraft over the city of Tehran during the Iran-Iraq war. This was later increased to 60 to 70 aircraft in the 1990s and then as many as 100 aircraft between 2001 and 2007. Some of the flypasts had to be cancelled due to bad weather and low visibility, for example on April 18, 2007, with some held with fewer aircraft on overcast days.
Due to the fear by the Iranian regime about the possibility of an airstrike against Iran’s nuclear facilities b…
