Explainer: What is the significance of Iran's ambitious national AWACS project?

By Ivan Kesic

The long-anticipated Iranian AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) project may soon become a reality, as all the necessary components are now being independently developed.

The unveiling of the domestically produced Simorgh aircraft at the Kish Airshow in December last year has reignited talk in domestic media about Iran’s national AWACS initiative.

Iran has sought to operate a fleet of AWACS aircraft for over four decades, but its progress has been marked by numerous setbacks, primarily due to reliance on foreign technology.

With advancements in domestic radar technology and the introduction of a suitable aircraft platform for carrying AWACS radars and subsystems, the first practical steps toward realizing the national project now seem imminent.

The Ministry of Defense had previously announced that the country’s AWACS will be unveiled by the end of the Iranian calendar year 1407, or by March 2029.

What advantages does AWACS offer Iran?

Iran already maintains a dense network of domestic radar systems that cover all strategic locations and extend hundreds of kilometers beyond its borders.

However, the addition of AWACS would significantly enhance its detection and tracking capabilities, according to military experts.

AWACS offers several advantages over ground-based radar systems due to its airborne nature and advanced technology.

While ground-based radar is constrained by the line-of-sight horizon, AWACS operates at high altitudes. This allows its radar to detect threats far beyond the Earth’s curvature – often up to 200 – 400 nautical miles (370–740 km), or ten times the range of sea-level radars.

This extended reach enables early detection of hostile aircraft, missiles, or ships long before they enter ground radar coverage, providing crucial time for defensive responses.

Unlike ground-based radar, which is obstructed by mountains and other terrain features, AWACS offers an unobstructed, all-encompassing view, making it significantly harder for stealthy or low-altitude threats, such as drones, cruise missiles, and helicopters, to evade detection.

AWACS also provides greater mobility and flexibility, allowing it to be deployed where it is needed most while offering full 360-degree coverage, unlike many ground-based radars that are often limited in directionality.

Beyond its role as an airborne early warning system, AWACS functions as a flying command center, equipped with advanced communication systems and staffed with operators responsible for identifying friend or foe targets (IFF system), processing real-time data, and coordinating operations.

What’s the history of AWACS in Iran

Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the United States had proposed selling an AWACS fleet to the Pahlavi regime to help deter potential threats from the Soviet Union.

Iran first expressed interest in acquiring the AWACS system as early as 1974. Initially, assessments estimated that seven Boeing E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft would be needed to patrol Iranian airspace, but following joint US-Iranian evaluations, this number was increased to ten.

The administration of US President Jimmy Carter supported the lucrative $1.2 billion deal, but the CIA director at the time opposed it, arguing that such advanced US technology could fall into Soviet hands through espionage or capture.

Ultimately, Washington approved the sale of five AWACS, half of Iran’s requested amount. However, this deal, along with other arms sales, was canceled following the victory of the Islamic Revolution.

During the Imposed War of the 1980s, Iran was unable to acquire AWACS, as the only countries possessing the technology, the US and the Soviet Union, were hostile to the Islamic Republic.

In response, the Iranian Air Force adapted out of necessity, utilizing F-14 jet fighters in an AWACS-like role. Their Hughes AN/AWG-9 X-band radar, with a range of up to 200 km, was the most powerful radar installed on any combat aircraft at the time.

In 1991, three years after the end of the Imposed War, dozens of Iraqi pilots defected to Iran with their aircraft to escape US-led attacks. Tehran seized these aircraft as part of war reparations, gaining a new fleet in the process.

Among them was the Ilyushin Il-76MD Adnan-2, the more modern of Iraq’s two AWACS aircraft. Built in the late 1980s, it featured a Russian Ilyushin airframe equipped with a modified French TRS-2105 (Tiger-G) radar mounted on a rotodome above the fuselage.

During the 2000s, Iran upgraded the Il-76MD Adnan-2 with a newly developed domestic radar system. The aircraft officially entered service in April 2008 under the name "Simorgh."

Tragically, after only a year and a half in operation, Iran’s sole functional AWACS was lost in a fatal plane crash, killing all seven crew members.

What are Iran’s future AWACS plans?

Since the loss of its AWACS in 2009, Iran has announced the development of new and advanced systems, favoring a domestically produced platform such as the IrAn-140.

The IrAn-140 project originally began as a licensed production of the Antonov An-140 turboprop aircraft in cooperation with Ukraine and Russia. However, throughout the 2000s and 2010s, the program encountered multiple challenges.

Iranian officials raised concerns over rising costs, structural deficiencies, and the poor quality of components shipped from Ukraine. These issues ultimately led to the termination of cooperation in 2015, prompting Iran to pursue a similar but independent project.

Named Simorgh, like the lost Iranian AWACS, this light transport aircraft and regional airliner project is now being led by the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA), the same organization responsible for the earlier IrAn-140 project.

In May 2023, Simorgh successfully completed its first test flight at HESA’s facilities near Isfahan. It was later unveiled in December 2024 during an airshow on Kish Island.

With a maximum payload of six tons, Simorgh is well-suited to carrying mid-sized radars above the fuselage, either a rotodome or a fixed AESA antenna, as well as command-and-control consoles and other supporting equipment.

Similar solutions have already been implemented in twin-engine turboprop aircraft of comparable size, such as the Swedish Saab 340 and Saab 2000, the Spanish CASA C-295, and the Chinese Xian Y-7.

An alternative to this approach would be to rely once again on foreign technology, either by modifying existing older platforms, such as the Ilyushin Il-76 and Boeing 707, both of which Iran already possesses, or by importing modern platforms or even entire AWACS systems from Russia or China.

However, given Iran’s strong preference for homegrown technology, it is most likely that the domestically produced HESA Simorgh will be chosen as the platform for the national AWACS project.

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