On the third day of the exhibition, which is underway on Kish Island, air force fighters carried out an air refueling mission using two F-14 Tomcat fighters, three F-4 warplanes and a Boeing 707 military tanker.

The Boeing 707 — a mid-sized, long-range, narrow-body, four-engine jet airliner — is used to meet the fueling demands of air force’s jet fleet during operations.

Iran has frequently staged its capability in air-to-air refilling of its fighter jets in different drills and other occasions. In 2009, the Iranian fighter jets conducted aerial refueling operations in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman during military drills.

The 9th Iran Air Show started on Monday (Nov. 26) and will continue through Thursday. Some 105 Iranian and 10 foreign companies are participating in the four-day event. On the two first days of the exhibition, fighter jets carried out aerobatic demonstrations in the presence of Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami, Deputy Commander of Army’s Air Force Brigadier General Hamid Vahedi and a number of senior military figures.

The Army announced on Wednesday that General Shah Safi has been awarded the ‘Order of Nasr’ for commanding several missions in the Air Force and for years of sincere, genuine and courageous service.

Earlier this month, Ayatollah Khamenei appointed Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh as the new commander of the IRIAF.

Order of Nasr is a military award of Iranian armed forces which is awarded by Commander-in-chief, Leader of Iran, to recognize distinguished logistics contribution and support of the troops.

The commanders of Iranian Army Air Force and Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Air Force held a joint meeting in Tehran on Saturday morning.

On the sidelines of the joint meeting, Iranian Army Air Force Commander Brigadier General Amir Ghorbani told reporters that Iranian air forces have increased the range of missiles installed on combat helicopters to above 8 kilometers.

Brigadier General Ghorbani further said that even countries that claim to have big military powers are not capable of manufacturing helicopters on their own and they are doing so in cooperation with other countries.

The commander of the Army Air Force said that during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, Iranian military experts managed to fix and maintain the combat helicopters, adding that after the war working on enhancing the capabilities of copters and renewing helicopter systems was pursued so that Iran now is well known as one of the big manufactures of choppers in West Asia region and even in the world.

Stating that there are only a few countries in the world that have night vision systems, the Army Air Force commander further said that today, the range of missiles installed on combat helicopters has increased to above 8 km even to 12 km.

He stressed that all the equipment and parts are manufactured inside the country and installed on the combat choppers by the domestic experts.

The drones team of the Air Force of the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran will compete with the countries of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, China and Pakistan in the field of hand-launched remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle.

The Iranian squad contesting in Kazakhstan left Tehran on Friday. The Iranian outfit is comprised of 9 participants and 7 aerial vehicles.

The International Army Games 2018 will be held from July 28 to August 11 in seven countries: Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Kazakhstan, Iran and Armenia.

The number of participants has also increased. 181 teams from 32 countries will take part in the games. This is a third more than last year.

The servicemen of Algeria, Vietnam, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sudan and the Philippines will show their skills.