Eurasia Press & News
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran has revamped its fighter jet fleet to fly distances of 3,000 kilometers without refueling, air force commander said on Sunday.
“We have succeeded in upgrading the capabilities of our planes and have increased the range of these planes to 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles) without refueling,” Brigadier General Ahmad Mighani said.
“We do not wish to attack another country… but we will defend ourselves should we be attacked,” he added.
The report comes after an Israeli long-range air drill in early June that is believed to have been a dress rehearsal for an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Israel and its close ally the United States accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, while they have never presented any corroborative document to substantiate their allegations. Both Washington and Tel Aviv possess advanced weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear warheads.
Iran vehemently denies the charges, insisting that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.
The two staunch allies have threatened to launch military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites should the country continue uranium enrichment.
Tehran has warned that Israel and 32 US bases in the region will be targeted should the country come under attack.
Although Miqani did not elaborate on the process, it has been suggested that external fuel tanks attached to the wings or fuselage can provide the extra fuel.
Iran announced in July that it had started producing radar-evading stealth aircrafts as well as overhauling F-14 fighter jets.
Elsewhere, the Iranian air force commander said that no country would be allowed to invade Iran.
“No country will be allowed to invade us; we will not also permit any foreigner to step in and attack the Iranian soil,” pilot Miqani told a group of the Islamic Republic Army Air Force’s former Prisoners of War (PoWs), forces and personnel.
Addressing a ceremony to appreciate services of the Air Force’s former prisoners of the 1980-88 war, who were freed after long years of captivity by former Iraqi Baathist regime, the Iranian top Air Force commander said Iran’s military policies are based on self-defense.
Miqani said that Iran’s forces managed to put Iraq navy forces in a crushing defeat position and repel enemy aggression early at the beginning of the war.
