The Conqueror - Pride of Iran?
Scale model of the Qaher 313 on display in Tehran.
Welcome back to Brooke In The Air! This week we’re going over the IAIO Qaher 313 aircraft/stealth drone!
The Qaher also known as the Conqueror, started life as a traditional manned aircraft, albeit on the small-size. Smaller than a traditional American SUV.
Let’s dig in and find out why this craft never made it to mass production.
OVERVIEW/INTRODUCTION
The IAIO Qaher-313 (Persian: Ghaher-313, AKA Conqueror [or Tamer]-313, Q-313, F-313) is a “planned” Iranian stealth unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
Originally intended to be a manned single-seat conventional fighter aircraft, the Qaher-313 was publicly announced on 1 February 2013. A press presentation about the project was made by Iranian then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and then-Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi on 2nd of February in 2013, as part of the so-called Ten-Day Dawn ceremonies.
Independent experts have expressed significant doubts about the viability of this aircraft.
In early 2023, Iranian media reported that the Qaher-313 was being reworked from a manned fighter aircraft into an unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV.
DESIGN
According to Iranian government sources, the F-313 Qaher was designed and is indigenously produced in Iran by the Iran Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO), a division of the Ministry of Defense, and IRIAF.
Qaher design blueprints
The aircraft design is a canard configuration. It is described as a stealth fighter built with advanced materials, a very low radar signature and with low-altitude operations capability. The Qaher can carry either two 2,000-pound (910 kg) bombs, multiple smaller smart guided missiles, or at least 6 PL-12 type air-to-air missiles. It features a downward wingtip device which Flight Global noted vaguely resembles the Boeing Bird of Prey prototype, but with a more faceted design similar to the 1970s-era Lockheed “Have Blue” project that was developed into the now-retired F-117 Nighthawk.
Flight Global also said, "given the apparent small size of the aircraft and its single engine design, the Qaher 313 could be powered by reverse engineered variants of the General Electric J85 turbojet that Iran is known to have in its possession." Iran has General Electric J85s as well as a dozen other jet engines as a result of old Northrop F-5s and other American aircraft in its inventory from pre-1979 as well as newer engines from Russia and China. Iran also builds various turbine engines like the Toloue-4 and Toloue-5 for its UAVs.
Iran claims they have designed the aircraft using CATIA three-dimensional interactive design software and tested it using simulation software including Gambit numerical grid generation software, fluent flow analysis and simulation software, CFD models and that they have additionally tested the aerodynamics using small sized jet and propeller flying models.
The main screen of the CATIA design system
For reference, CATIA is an acronym of computer-aided three-dimensional interactive application. It is a multi-platform software suite for computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CAE), 3D modeling and product lifecycle management (PLM), developed by the French company Dassault Systèmes.
On 15 April 2017, the prototype Qaher-313 conducted taxi tests.
This prototype, designated "08", introduced a number of changes over the models previously showcased, most notably an enlarged cockpit, dual jet exhausts, and a FLIR turret in the nose.
UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE (UAV) REDEVELOPMENT
The managing director of the Iran Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO), a subsidiary of the Defense Ministry, announced in a televised interview on 18th of February in 2023 that the fighter had reached technical maturity but would be reworked and fielded as an unmanned drone rather than a manned aircraft to adapt it to the requirements of Iranian military units, first deliveries would be made in the middle of 2024.
No development progress had been publicly demonstrated since taxi trials took place in 2017.
DOUBTS OF VIABILITY
There has been no independent verification of the status of development of this aircraft and some commentators have even claimed that the aircraft is a hoax, or a "laughable fake". Media sources outside of Iran have raised the possibility that the demonstrated aircraft would not be able to meet stated performance and / or that it may be a scale prototype or mockup, with Cyrus Amini, a BBC News Persian Service journalist claiming that the aircraft "looks like a cheap copy of the American F22". Iran does not release technical details on its arsenals, so many of its claims about the aircraft are impossible to verify.
According to Flight Global, unnamed Israeli experts say the "indigenous fighter jet" Iran presented on 2 February is nothing more than a "very sleek plastic model". Further, the canopy appears to be constructed of "basic plastic," the air intakes are unusually small and "The whole impression is of some plastic parts pasted to an old flying platform". One expert says the cockpit and ejection seat seem real, but the Qaher-313 displayed seemed too small to be a capable fighter.
A photo of the cockpit shows a simple glass cockpit design using civilian avionics from Dynon Avionics and Garmin, which are normally found on much less sophisticated general aviation aircraft. The markings on the backup airspeed indicator in this photo seem unrealistic, suggesting a stall speed in landing configuration of merely 70 knots (130 km/h; 81 mph) and a never exceed speed of about 260 knots (480 km/h; 300 mph); values more likely to be found on a small turboprop aircraft. Video footage showing the plane airborne could have been a radio-controlled model aircraft.
The only known photo of the Conceptual Qaher 313.
Poor-quality footage posted on the internet provided no sense of scale for the platform being flown and also failed to show its take-off or landing. Its stealth claims have also been called into question, having no visible weapons carrying capability, either internally or externally. Iran has stated that the videos are of small radio controlled jet and propeller models and not the full size airplane.
Furthermore, the animation provided by the designers shows two poorly-designed internal weapons bays under the wings.
The Times of Israel labelled the aircraft "a hoax". Israeli aeronautics expert Tal Inbar claimed "It’s not a plane, because that’s not how a real plane looks. Iran doesn’t have the ability to build planes. Plain and simple."
Military aviation journalist David Cenciotti stated that the aircraft has "implausible aerodynamics and Hollywood sheen", claimed that it is too small to be a real fighter jet and that the cockpit was too simple and was "similar to those equipping small private planes".
END COMMENTS
One Israeli aerospace engineer speaking anonymously to The Times of Israel indicated that while the aircraft displayed was obviously not a flying example, it did show advanced stealth features and that the design could be capable of high maneuverability. He stated that while the aircraft lacked bomb-carrying provisions it could be an effective interceptor. He concluded, Iran needs "a defensive interceptor that gives them the element of surprise, and it is big enough to carry real air-to-air missiles."
I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about this “conceptual” aircraft.
