The licenses were issued under the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA)
signed in Geneva last November between Iran and the world powers.
The
Boeing license allows the giant aerospace company to provide “spare parts that
are for safety purposes.” Boeing will still not be allowed to sell new planes
to Iran. (AFP, 4 April)
Meanwhile, GE spokesman Rick Kennedy said the Treasury’s approval will allow the company to service 18 engines at facilities owned by GE or Germany's MTU Aero Engines, which is licensed to do the work. GE officials will meet with Iran Air and MTU in Istanbul next week to discuss the project. (Reuters, 4 April)
File photo: An Iran Air Boeing 747 (Getty)
Meanwhile, GE spokesman Rick Kennedy said the Treasury’s approval will allow the company to service 18 engines at facilities owned by GE or Germany's MTU Aero Engines, which is licensed to do the work. GE officials will meet with Iran Air and MTU in Istanbul next week to discuss the project. (Reuters, 4 April)
File photo: An Iran Air Boeing 747 (Getty)
14 comments:
How sad. In the 1970s Iran was like a co partner in Boeing and Grumman.
good for the Americans, showing some concern for the people fated to fly the theocrats' old crates.
Can you please elaborate with documentation how Iran had co partnered with Boeing and Grumman?
This is the first IM hearing of any sort of "partnership"
I know the shah made a risky loan to Pan Am and even tried to buy the airline
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,912805,00.html
A positive development indeed, but more is necessary. The safety of ordinary people should never be compromised just because there is a conflict of interest between the two governments.
And there you are Basrawi.
But i am wondering, who is to blame for compromising safety of ordinary people (in Iran) by your means ??
If there is a conflict of interests 'between two governments', someone has to be blamed more, if you are claiming to be an 'analyst', otherwise you cannot have "both ways"
Not an U...'s altar boy.
Well my friend, an analyst should remain objective and non-biased, don't you think? To be fair there's blame on both sides going back in history. The current ruling governments and past governments in both countries have taken some faulty decisions. You have people who, without any shame, post comments on this blog whitewashing the irresponsible acts of Khomeini who bore a tremendous responsibility but who willingly and deliberately chose to misuse his influence which cost the lives of the Iranian people and caused a great detriment to my country and my countrymen. All the while i personally have always judged fairly when it comes to discussing historical events, for instance, recognising the reckless decisions that Saddam took. Other people who post here on a regular basis can testify to that claim. The individuals whom i mentioned ealier are truly biased, however it's sad that one must point it out to them, for they don't seem to know it. Though i suspect it would do little in changing their position on such matters. In regards to the issue of the civil aviation of Iran, i believe the Americans have acted in a cruel way. I for one cannot see why Iran should not be allowed to even purchase new passenger planes.
With kind regards.
The Shah bailed out Grumman with a huge bank loan.He also bought 25% of Grupp and a large share in the hotel Intercontinental group. Northrop also was setting up factory in Iran as well as Bell helicopter Inc and Hughes. Iran was 30 years ahead of China and UAE was nothing then nothing.
That is largely correct, Iranian economic growth was in double digits after the 1973 oil embargo and so was industrialization. In all fairness, the quick pace of Shah's ambitious plans brought him down as his foreign "friends" and the bulk of superstitious and conservative Iranian population could not accept such rapid progress. The ultimate irony is that it the Shah's vision, industrialization and the weapons that saved Iran in 1980 from the idiot Saddam. If the Shah had been around for another decade or so Iran would have been the world's top ten military and economic powers without any exaggeration. The 300 F-16 on order alone would have made the best equipped airforce outside the US, both qualitatively and quantitative. The embryonic Bell-Textron Isfahan factory even today is the only modern helicopter refurbishment facility in Iran. The Huey was named Isfahan 212/214 for that very reason. It is a heartbreaking shame to see the tragedy that has befallen Iran under the illiterate mullahs and their corrupt cronies. This is so far from the vision the Shah had for a potentially great nation like Iran and unfortunately paid for it with his life and family.
Not exactly how it happened. The Shah indeed bailed out Grumman, but it was merely in exchange for exclusive and early access to then cutting-edge, but still export version of the F-14 with a few critical element ripped-off, something that a group of republican congressmen were still opposed to initially though but later backtracked considering the hugely favorable terms in which the Shah accepted to poor in billions directly for their financially ailing company.
Grumman engineers were, until the Revolution, the only operators allowed to even touch the plane and its weapon systems such as the renowned AIM-54 long range Phoenix AAM they attempted to sabotage afterwards to prevent IRI access and use, an action that didn't take long to be reverted by Iranian teams anyway.
The Bell factory set up in Iran was mainly an overhaul facility set up by the Americans to diminish the cost of maintaining Iran's sprawling inventory of rotary-wing aircraft and provide extended on-site service, it was never established nor came in with any kind of technology transfers in mind. As for your claim of Iran being 30 years ahead of China : the latter by 1966 was already producing fighter aircraft such as the J-7, under license from the USSR, based on the Mig-21 series with some chinese-made internal components. I do not see Iran being able to produce anything else than RPGs and light weapon ammo before 1979. After the Revolution it took years of studies of technical manuals left behind and painstaking, slow and gradual upgrades and modification of assembly chains and machine tools by Iranian engineering teams to come up with the still-limited current degree of helicopter parts production and overhaul capabilities of HESA, which in a few years time will ultimately, by all accounts including American ones, produce their own upgraded , modernized version of the Cobra attack helicopter.
A good read on how Grumman persuaded the Shah in choosing their fighter over the competing F-15 with nothing more than pulling visually impressive air stunts, over real operational performance they carefully avoided to detail, like heavy fuel consumption :
http://theaviationist.com/2013/02/11/shah-tomcat/#.UUeGb1e658E
Anon 8:23,
In comparison to Iran's current aerospace manufacturing capabilities no matter how limited they are in regards to countries with much older defense industries, the UAE is actually still "nothing" and merely goes on regular buying sprees of expensive military equipment of which a large share are then manned by foreign operators, much like its big brother Saudi Arabia. Nothing to be truly proud of over Iran, of which I am definitly not a fan either. But facts are facts. I wish you good luck in naming even one complex and advanced piece of military hardware even partially produced in an indigenous way by either GCC countries. Even copies or upgraded derivatives of existing material like Iran does.
-A
BASRAWI- what a heap of shameless lies from YOU !
-EVEN Uskowi , a firebrand critic of the regime can never allow himself to be swayed by emotions when commenting on the whole issue of the Jange tahmili AND WOULD ALWAYS wish his readers to see all faults on both sides ,and this is what defines an honest analyst!. Not one driven by a demon ! making a joke at history!!. and what are you saying?-
@-The Imam's actions caused some detriment to your country and your country men !,
@-you recognize Saint Saddam's reckless decisions?
@ But all the same the Imam is tremendously responsible for the loss of lives in Iran... while MR. SAINT Saddam receives only a recognition from you for some reckless decision!!.AND YET the whole world remember the IMAM as telling SAINT Saddam that "the US [your darling ] is like a snake!-today they are on your side against Iran but someday this same SNAKE will bite you"
conclusion
you are proving very sadly that you are very economical with the truth on the issue of the imposed war and that you are only good at bashing Iranian Leaders without convincing your readers!.
Anon 7:51 AM
First of all the then USSR never gave the licensing rights to China to produce the MIG 21 back in 1966 ! The Chinese copy of the MIG 21 was the direct result of a captured plane that landed in Israel. The Isreali's allowed the Chinese engineers to study this plane because Israel had good relations with the Chinese. It took the Chinese another decade or so to produce the F7.
The Isfahan helicopter factory was going to produce the bell 214 Isfahan under license. Just like the Shire Iran tank was going to be built under license in Isfahan.At that time the best tank in the world which became the Challenger mark one tank after the cancellation of the program. Hughes and Northrop also had contracts to build defense plants in Iran of which one of them is operating today for the aircraft missile division.
Iran was going to produce the F16 under license as well as the F18 by the mid 1980s.
And one more thing,there was no "export version" of the F14 Tomcat ! The Tomcat sold to Iran was identical to the US version minus its arrester hook for aircraft carriers! The US didn't want to sell the F14 to any other nation because of it high technology. The F14 was far more advanced than the F15 because of its Radar and Phoenix missle system designed to shoot down Soviet long range bombers. It was the F14 that shot down Iraqi and Russian MIG 25 Foxbats. It also shot down Iraqi medium range bomber known as the Backfire.So your assumption that the F14 was heavy on its fuel consumption is pointless because of the airplanes superiority over any known aircraft at the time. When you have murderous countries like Saddam's Iraq and the former Soviet Union bordering you,it was a very good choice to make in purchasing an advanced airplane like the F14 Tomcat. Because the Soviets stopped flying over Iranian airspace after the introduction of this super plane which to this day is flying over Iranian skies. Go and tell those pilots that the F14 does "visually impressive air stunts" as compared to the F15 and see what their reaction would be. I 'm sure they wouldn't be impressed by your comments.
This is nearly 40 years ago in Iran and to produce any weapons in the so-called developing world at that time was a big achievement. You think Iran wouldn't have been more advanced today because of the suicide of 1979? It would have been a first rate nation like South Korea and Japan today. The reason the UAE is better than Iran is because of its economy! Look at the worthless currency of Iran today and compare it to Qatar and UAE or even before the suicide of 1979. The Turks used to come to the borders of Iran to buy fridge freezers and other household goods. Instead Iranians today look up to Turkey because of its economy and its social freedoms. Turkey's GDP is twice as much as Iran's,and that despite Iran's huge natural energy reserves.
Clearly Iran lacks leadership from above as well as non existent managment across the board. Sixty per cent of the population live below the poverty line while the "government" is busy wasting Iran's money by giving it away to countries like Syria Lebanon even Iraq an oil rich nation. They give tens of millions to Hezbollah every month of of the year while Iranian workers aren't paid for months at a time.
Advancement is social and economic progress.Military advancement by itself is pointless if you don't have economic and social advancement. The old Soviet Union proved this when it collapsed. And the Islamic republic is proving this by hindering economic and social progress with its suppressive tactics against the masses.
Anon 7:26,
wrong ! Khrushchev and Mao officially signed relevant papers for a strong partnership in every military field in the mid-50s, and the Mig-21 cooperation plan inked in march 1961 was the cornerstone of that initiative. Russia at the time openly decided to power up Chinese aerospace industries and associated academic base, and was already involved in weapons technology transfer related to the Mig-19. We're talking facts from history books and government websites. Israeli involvement concerned the modern J-10 fighter, you're more than 20 years off.
As for the military licensing of the Shah : aside maybe from the Bell 214 in the long run, your claims are speculations all the way. Even Israel doesn't have that kind of access to US technology today, and was forced to rely on large scale industrial espionage to make its own jet the "Lavi". The Shah for his part wasn't even able to come to an agreement with Hughes to fully transfer core technologies for the AGM Maverick missile, and you're implying he would have obtained licences for then cutting-edge F-16s and F-18s a mere 3 years after that ? please...
I'm actually quite a fan of the F-14 for its combat record in Iran. I was merely pointing out how laughable was the way the Shah was influenced in choosing it over the F-15.Did yo u even bother to read the article I posted ? Besides, Soviet overflights of Iran were stopped shortly after a widely publicized long range test-fire of an AIM-54 taking down a drone flying at 250km+, no Soviet Mig-25 was ever taken down by any Iranian F-14, empty claims again on your part.
Your "king" acquired little to no valuable technological transfers during his reign, and the country didn't "make" anything by itself, but was rather home for sophisticated assembly chains like Mexico's Intel ICC foundry, just like Rouhani plans on doing when sanctions are eventually shaken off, nothing more. On the other hand Pahlavi was busy injecting billions in oil money to help keep an ailing aerospace firm in the US afloat and allowing his minions to eat up Metro construction funds 5 times over without constructing a meter of railways. I could say volumes about unequal wealth distribution, income gap, inflation, the totally unsustainable and rushed development plan, widespread corruption and high inflation and empty economic promises let alone the political nature of his despotic rule as counter evidence to the temple of progress you are trying to convey but this page is no place for revisiting Iran's history, and I would be stating the obvious anyway. The Shah for some time simply took profit from the fruit of high oil prices and a short-lived economic boom that is a normal, systemic occurrence in the inception phases of reformed capitalist societies.
As for your comparison with Japan or Korea, considering how drastically superior their industries were to Iran at the time the Shah was in power. Next time you find such a well-developed electronics and aerospace industry in 1970s Iran comparable to the likes of which were already in place in the two Asian countries selling a wide range of expensive high-end hardware to the whole world competing with US products, don't forget to let me know. But by your assertion, all of this would have happened in less than 10 years had our dear monarch remained in power, yes sure. If anything, Iran's scientific level exploded in the early 2000s, and this not coming from mehrnews or farsnews "farce news" agency : http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/a8f6695e-5953-11e0-bc39-00144feab49a.html#axzz1IAnqjsM7
-A
PS : none of words and opinions described above alter the fact that I totally agree on the well-deserved harsh criticism and attacks you perform on the IRI and its reckless, selfish and inhumane fashion of "leading" the country (into ruins), notably in terms of crumbling social standards. The situation they created economically will have consequences for generations yet unborn even if sanctions are lifted overnight, plus Iran's economic woes were only worsened by the sanctions regime and its repeated attempts at putting it all on the latter is nothing more than cheap propaganda fooling none with even a slight degree of intellectual honesty. I will be the first to say that no matter how terrible the Shah was a dictator, the IRI actually managed to dig even deeper in abomination in many regards. However, I do not think it it is by itself enough ground for anyone to wish a future return to that past era. 30 years of unquestioned rule by the monarch that ended in an uprising were enough, just like 34 years of suffering and backwardness aren't worth wishing a long hold on power by the corrupt mullah, notwithstanding the purely technological progress they mostly made in purely military fields while the civilian sector was left into decay and the average citizen shrinking every time lower below the poverty line, like you pointed out with correct figures. 55% to 60% is being acknowledged by most estimates both on left and right-leaning organization. We do not need the country to be embroiled into wars that have historically nothing to do with it or sustaining a Shiite mercenary army in Lebanon or Iraq while so many people wander in big cities' suburbs with an empty stomach is what I can safely call abomination, by telling me this you're pretty much preaching a convert. Condemning the regime's doing and wishing it to return to the old days or see American bombings supposedly solving our problems for us by destroying the country via Iraq-style "Shock & Awe" are two separate axis of discussions to me, that is all. But I wanted to make my position towards the current regime clear to all one more time.
-A
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