Ahmadinejad unveils u Ir ran's new west fighter jet

TEHRAN N, Iran (AP) Iran on Sa aturday unve eiled its newe est combat je et, a domestic cally manufac ctured fighter-bo omber that mi ilitary official ls claim can evade e radar. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad A said in a cere emony broad dcast on state TV that buil lding the Qah her F313, or Dominant F-31 13, shows Iran n's will to "co onquer scienti ific peaks." er is one of several s aircraft designs the e Iranian mil litary has roll led out since 2007. Tehra an has The Qahe repeatedly y claimed to have develo oped advance ed military te echnologies in recent yea ars, but its c claims cannot be independentl ly verified be ecause the cou untry does no ot release tech hnical details o of its arsenals s. The Islam estern mic republic la aunched a self f-sufficient military m progra am in the 198 80s to compen nsate for a We weapons embargo e that t banned expo ort of military y technology and equipme ent to Iran. Si ince 1992, Ira an has produced its own tanks s, armored personnel carrie ers, missiles, torpedoes, dr rones and figh hter planes. "Qaher is a fully indig genous aircraf ft designed an nd built by ou ur aerospace e experts. This is a radar-ev vading t can fly at low l altitude, carry weapo ons, engage e enemy aircraf fts and land at short airst trips," plane that Defense Minister M Ahm mad Vahidi sai id. Vahidi sa aid advanced materials were used to manufacture m th he body of th he aircraft, ma aking it Iran's best stealth pla ane. However, , some report ts suggest tha at Iran's progr ram relies on n equipment s supplied by m major interna ational defense co ontractors and that it incor rporates parts s made abroad d or uses out tside engineer red technolog gies in its domest tic designs. Still photo os of the Qah her released by b the officia al IRNA news s agency and pictures on s state TV show wed a single-sea at jet. They de escribed it as a fighter-bom mber that can combat other r aircraft and ground target ts. Iran's English-languag ge state Pres ss TV said Qaher Q was s similar to th he American-made F/A-18, an advanced fighter capab ble of dogfigh hting as well as a penetrating g enemy air d defenses to str rike ground ta argets. n Parvaneh, an a official in charge c of the project, said the physical design of the e Iranian plan ne was But Hasan unique an nd bore no res semblance to any a foreign fighter fi jet. "Developm ment depends s on our will. . If we don't have h a will, n no one can ta ake us there," Ahmadinejad told the inaugu uration cerem mony in Tehra an. "Once we e imported car rs and assemb bled them he ere. Now, we are at a point wh here we can design, d build and a get plane es in the air." Ahmadine ejad said Qah her was built for f deterrence e. "It's not for expansio onism. It's fo or deterrence, ," he said, c claiming the aircraft was s among the most n the world. advanced fighter jets in I unveiled what it said was w its first domestically d m manufactured d fighter jet, called Azarakh hsh or In 2007, Iran Lightning g. In the same year, it claim med that Azarakhsh had rea ached industr rial production n stage. Saeqeh, or o Thunder, was w a follow-u up aircraft derived from A Azarakhsh. Ira an unveiled it ts first squadr ron of Saeqeh fig ghter bomber rs in an air sho ow in Septem mber 2010.