Iranian aviation giant Iran Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO) has rolled out the production version of the Yasin – a light jet-powered trainer aircraft that’s also capable of flying close air support (CAS) missions.
The new jet was unveiled at a ceremony in Tehran on Saturday attended by Defense Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, with the general tasked with formally launching the mass production of the aircraft.
“Among our main concern is training fighter pilots, because the process is of paramount significance and requires training aircraft in different classes,” Ashtiani said during the ceremony, addressing reporters and engineers responsible for the Yasin’s development and construction.
“The homegrown characteristics of the training jet make it suitable for close air support,” the commander said.
“Previously, our fighter pilots used to be trained abroad. The first area affected by the sanctions against our country was this field, which created difficulties for us in terms of training,” Brig. Gen. Hamid Vahedi, the commander of Iran’s Air Force, said at the event. “Utilization of the new aircraft will make training duration shorter and more complete,” he said.
Ashtiani said that most of the equipment in the aircraft has been localized, thereby reducing Iran’s dependence on forces or factors beyond its ability to control.
A prototype of the Yasin was first unveiled in late 2019, with the production model presented Saturday apparently a refined and upgraded version featuring a domestically-developed radar, avionics, engine, landing gear and ejection seats.
The Yasin is a light-weight aircraft which weighs about 5.5 tons, has a range of up to 1,200 km and a flight speed of up to 1,000 km. The twin-engined, two-man crewed jet has a thrust of 3,200 kg, on par with the MiG-AT, an advanced trainer/light attack prototype developed by the Mikoyan Design Bureau in the 1990s. The Yasin’s flight ceiling is 11 km, and it has a runway length requirement of 800 meters. Its maximum takeoff weight is 6,600 kg. The aircraft can remain in the air for an hour and a half using internal fuel tanks, or two hours with attachable external tanks.
The Yasin joins nearly a dozen trainers already in the Iranian Air Force’s arsenal, including the Fajr F.3, the Dorna, and the Simorgh. Iran also has Chinese-built Chengdu FT-7, French-made Socata TB, Pakistani MFI-17 Mushshak, Swiss Pilatus PC-7 Turbos and US-made Beachcraft Bonanza trainers in its inventory. Iran’s ground attack fleet consists of Russian Sukhoi Su-24s and the Azarakhsh, an Iranian-built light attack jet built on the basis of the Northrop F-5, a US warplane that Iran inherited after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Iran has not let the decades that it has spent under crushing Western and international sanctions go to waste, creating one of the largest and most comprehensive defense industrial complexes in the Middle East, and producing everything from advanced missile systems and long-range radars, to a homegrown defense electronics sector.