Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force

Iranian air power is divided between the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force (IRGC-ASF), a split that separates conventional interception and strike aviation from the ballistic missile and one-way attack drone arsenal. The IRIAF is organized around numbered tactical air bases, among them Mehrabad in Tehran, Tabriz, Nojeh at Hamadan, Vahdati at Dezful, Bushehr, Shiraz, Isfahan and Bandar Abbas, each hosting one or more squadrons together with the overhaul depots that keep sanctioned airframes flying. Territorial air defense belongs to a third organization, the Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base, which controls the radar network and the surface-to-air missile force.

Doctrine was built around a fighter fleet that could not be renewed. Cut off from American spares after 1979 and restricted in its access to Russian and Chinese aircraft for most of the period since, Iran placed deterrence in the hands of the IRGC-ASF and its mass-produced ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and Shahed-series drones, leaving manned aviation a secondary role of airspace policing. The IRIAF sustained F-4D/E and RF-4E Phantoms, F-5E/F Tiger IIs, a dwindling F-14A force, MiG-29s, Su-24s and F-7s through domestic overhaul, reverse-engineered components and local derivatives of the F-5 airframe marketed as the Kowsar and the Saeqeh.

That posture was tested to destruction. Israeli strikes in June 2025 destroyed F-14s at Isfahan and Mehrabad, AH-1J helicopters at Kermanshah and a KC-707 tanker at Mashhad. A larger joint US-Israeli campaign opened in late February 2026 under the American designation Operation Epic Fury, and over the following six weeks Iranian aircraft were destroyed on the ground in successive waves: F-7 fighters at Isfahan, F-4s and F-5s caught on the runway at Tabriz, C-130s, Il-76s, An-74s, Boeing 707s and 747s and a P-3F maritime patrol aircraft at Mehrabad, Shiraz and Kerman, and Mi-17 and Bell 214 helicopters at Sanandaj and Karaj. The few contested air engagements ended the same way. Two Su-24s were shot down by Qatari F-15QAs minutes from Al Udeid on 2 March 2026, and an Israeli F-35I downed a Yak-130 over Tehran on 4 March in what was reported as the type's first air-to-air kill. Iranian aircraft losses across the conflict exceed ninety airframes, concentrated in the transport and tanker fleet, which has been effectively dismantled.

Operations have not stopped. A ceasefire agreed on 8 April 2026 was declared over by Washington in July, strikes resumed against coastal and air defense targets, and a further pause took effect in late July while Omani mediators pursued talks in Tehran on reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Through these phases the IRIAF has largely avoided contesting the air, dispersing surviving aircraft and leaving the response to the IRGC-ASF missile and drone force.

Reconstitution now depends almost entirely on Russia. A batch of MiG-29s was delivered and stationed at Shiraz as a stopgap, and the first Mi-28NE attack helicopter arrived in January 2026. The larger commitment is a contract for Su-35s, of which roughly twenty airframes had been completed in Russian plants by mid-2026 but were being held pending transfer, with reconstruction of damaged infrastructure at Nojeh reported as one of the constraints on delivery. Leaked documents describe a wider programme of up to 48 aircraft running to 2028. Whether those airframes arrive in quantity, and whether the bases and air defense network can be rebuilt to receive them, will determine whether the IRIAF remains a functioning air arm or is reduced to a training and transport organization behind the IRGC missile force.