The new fighter jet Iran unveiled Tuesday, an aircraft the country claimed was 'domestically manufactured,' appears to be an American-made jet from the 1970s.
One day after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and other officials were on hand to show the world the jet that Iran said was "100-percent indigenously made," military experts cast serious doubt on the Iranians' boasting and said the jet is actually a Northrup F-5F.
Iran purchased several fighters in the F-5 family in the 1960s and 1970s.
"The markings on the side, particularly the slightly unusual air intakes that slope backwards slightly, are those of the F-5F," John Sneller of Jane's IHS Markit told CNBC. "It is all a bit of a giveaway really."
Joseph Dempsey of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) went a step further, posting a dual image on Twitter showing the Iranian fighter and an older image of an F-5F fighter with U.S. Air Force markings sitting in a hanger.
Iran has dubbed its "new" fighter the "Kowsar," which according to the Associated Press refers to a river in paradise and is also the title of a chapter in the Muslim holy book, the Quran.
Content from Reuters was used in this report.
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