Iran: April 7, 2000

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While it had been assumed that the Iranian Azarakhsh (Lighting) fighter was based on a Russian or Chinese design, Iranian sources now report that it is in fact a scaled-up copy of the American F-5F fighter, 15% bigger than the original aircraft. It uses two Russian RD33 engines and a Russian Phazotron N019ME Topaz radar configured for ground attack missions.--Stephen V Cole