Yeah, pull the other leg:
Iran says it has increased the range of its warplanes, allowing them to fly as far as Israel and back without refueling.
State TV is quoting air force chief Gen. Ahmad Mighani as saying Iranian warplanes can now fly 3,000 kilometers (1,865 miles) without refueling. He didn’t specify the aircraft type or explain how the range was extended.
Okay, you can’t count magic carpets, and you certainly can’t count the flying horse of Mohammed that supposedly got him to Jerusalem (which, at the time, held no mosque, but why quibble?).
And no djinn, either.
So what do you suppose the Iranians have done to their aging fleet of F-14 Tomcats and Soviet-supplied aircraft, hm?
I’m thinking nothing. This is just bluster. And why would the Iranians want Israel to think that Iranian airplanes could reach Israel without refueling? Hell, even the AP can figure it out:
Sunday’s report did not refer to Israel by name, but Mighani’s remarks come after an Israeli air exercise in June that US officials described as a possible rehearsal for a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Too bad Iran doesn’t really have the capacity. I think we’d see a repeat of the last dogfight with Syria: 100 downed Syrian jets to zero Israeli jets downed by Syria.
That’s actually quite nice of them if you think about it. Now the Israeli air force wont have to go quite so far blow them up. Should be a real time saver!
Fakery they’ve evidently tired of photoshopping.
There are only three ways to increase the unrefueled range of an airplane:
1) increase the fuel carried
2) decrease the weight carried
3) lie about it.
Note that choice #3 includes all sorts of ways of playing with the aircraft’s performance numbers in order to create false impressions. For example, you can say “the range is 3000 km” but not mention that you’re talking about the one-way flight range carrying nothing but drop tanks. Combat radius — that is, the round-trip distance the airplane can travel while carrying weapons and enough fuel to fly out, fly back, and spend combat time at the far end — is typically only 30-40% of the one-way range.
Gen. Ahmad Mighani isn’t pulling your leg. Amadinejad is pulling his finger.
“Amadinejad is pulling his finger.”
That’s how most Iranian propaganda is generated.
Wolf,
It’s a horrible thought, but what if the General isn’t planning on the planes coming back? A suicide bomber in a plane = Kamikaze. Desperation + Stupidity is a deadly combination.
“You will fly high in sky until you come to the evil Zionist Enity. You can tell when you have done so because the land will turn from brown to green. Find a school building and put airplane into steep dive, crashing plane into school killing self and all the children there, ocnvincing the evil Jews that they have no future there. Now, before we have the ceremonial smoking of the hookah, are there any questions?”
“O Mighty Slayer of Infidels.”
“Yes Ahmedzadeh?”
“Are you out of your effing mind?”