Native name | Persian: سازمان صنایع دفاع جمهوری اسلامی ایران Sâzmân-e Sanâye'-e Defâ'-e Jomhuri-ye Eslâmi-ye Iran |
---|---|
Company type | State-owned company |
Industry | Defense |
Founded | 1981 |
Headquarters | , Iran |
Area served | Iran, Iraq |
Products | Munitions Small arms Artillery Explosive Combat vehicle Naval vessels Civil and military aerospace Defence electronics |
Owner | Ministry of Defense (100%) |
Number of employees | >35,000 |
The Defense Industries Organization (DIO) is a conglomerate of companies run by the Islamic Republic of Iran whose function is to provide the Armed Forces with the necessary manufacturing capacity and technical abilities. In recent years, the DIO has attempted to become export-oriented, allowing Iran to become an exporter of weapons.
Prior to 1963, the Iranian military industry consisted of a number of independent factories. Iran's military industry was born under the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In 1973, the Iran Electronics Industries (IEI) was founded to organize efforts to assemble and repair foreign-delivered weapons. [1] [2] Most of Iran's weapons before the Islamic revolution were imported from the United States and Europe. Between 1971 and 1975, the Shah went on a buying spree, ordering $8 billion in weapons from the United States alone. This alarmed many in the U.S., which strengthened a 1968 law on arms exports in 1976 and renamed it the Arms Export Control Act. Still, the United States continued to sell large amounts of weapons to Iran until the 1979 Islamic Revolution. [3]
In an early effort to overhaul Iran's military capabilities, Mohammad Reza Shah ordered the creation of the Military Industries Organization (MIO). Operating as a branch of the Ministry of War, the MIO was to oversee all military production within Iran. Over the next fifteen years, military plants produced small arms ammunition, batteries, tires, copper products, explosives, and mortar rounds and fuses. They also produced rifles and machine guns under license from West Germany. In addition, helicopters, jeeps, trucks, and trailers were assembled from imported kits in attempts to transfer technical knowledge to Iran. Additionally, the organization was charged with research and development and took the initiative in reverse engineering a number of Soviet RPG-7, BM-21, and SAM-7 missiles in 1979. [4]
The Iranian Revolution halted all the military activities of the MIO. Plagued by the upheavals of the time, the MIO was left unable to operate without foreign specialists and technicians; by 1981 it had lost much of its management ability and control over its industrial facilities. [5]
The outbreak of the Iran–Iraq War in 1980 and the Western arms embargo served as a massive catalyst for the MIO to reorganize its operations. In late 1981, the new revolutionary government of Iran brought together the now disorganised sections of the MIO and placed them under the Defense Industries Organization. The DIO would from this point onwards supervise all production, research and development.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was put in charge of re-organising the domestic military industry. Under their command Iran's military industry was dramatically expanded, and with the Ministry of Defence pouring capital into the missile industry, Iran soon had an arsenal of missiles. [6]
In 1987, the DIO was governed by a mixed civilian-military board of directors and a managing director responsible for the actual management and planning activities. Although the DIO director was accountable to the deputy minister of defense for logistics, it was the president of Iran, in his capacity as the chairman of the SDC, had ultimate responsibility for all DIO operations.
Since 1992, it also has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles, a submarine, and a fighter plane. [7]
Today, the DIO has more than 35,000 employees, 30% of whom are university graduates. It is also the key organisation driving Iran's significant military industry.
In 2007, following events in Iran's Nuclear Program, the United Nations Security Council placed sanctions against Iran forbidding it from exporting any form of weapons. [8]
The Islamic Republic of Iran Navy or Iranian Navy, officially abbreviated NEDAJA, is the naval warfare service branch of Iran's regular military, the Islamic Republic of Iran Army (Artesh). It is one of Iran's two maritime military branches, alongside the Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
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The military history of Iran has been relatively well-documented, with thousands of years' worth of recorded history. Largely credited to its historically unchanged geographical and geopolitical condition, the modern-day Islamic Republic of Iran has had a long and checkered military culture and history; ranging from triumphant and unchallenged ancient military supremacy, affording effective superpower status for its time; to a series of near-catastrophic defeats, most notably including the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon as well as the Asiatic nomadic tribes at the northeastern boundary of the lands traditionally home to the Iranian peoples.
Iran's military industry manufactures and exports various types of arms and military equipment. Iran's military industry, under the command of Iran's Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics, is composed of the following main components:
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Iran Electronics Industries or Integrated Electronics Industries(IEI, Persian: صنایع الکترونیک ایران; also known as Persian: صاایران, Sâiran) is a state-owned subsidiary of Iran's Ministry of Defense. It is a diversified organization with operations in electronics, optics, electro-optics, medical equipment, communications, computer and semiconductors.
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The Toophan is an Iranian SACLOS anti-tank guided missile reverse-engineered from the American BGM-71 TOW missile. The Toophan 1, an unlicensed copy of the BGM-71A TOW missile, began mass production in 1988 and the Toophan 2, a BGM-71C ITOW variant, was publicly shown in 2000.
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The Iran Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO), also known as the Aerospace Industries Organization, is an Iranian state-owned corporation established in 1966 for the purpose of planning, controlling, and managing the civil & military aviation industry of Iran. The Aerospace Industries Organization acts as both an OEM, directly manufacturing aircraft and aerospace products, and as a conglomerate, holding other Iranian state-owned aviation corporations.
This article is a timeline of events relevant to the Islamic Revolution in Iran. For earlier events refer to Pahlavi dynasty and for later ones refer to History of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This article doesn't include the reasons of the events and further information is available in Islamic revolution of Iran.
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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, commonly referred to in the Western world as Mohammad Reza Shah, or simply the Shah, was the last monarch of Iran. He began ruling the Imperial State of Iran after succeeding his father, Reza Shah, in 1941 and remained in power until he was overthrown by the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which abolished the country's monarchy and established the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 1967, he took up the title Shahanshah, and also held several others, including Aryamehr and Bozorg Arteshtaran. He was the second and last ruling monarch of the Pahlavi dynasty to rule Iran. His dream of what he referred to as a "Great Civilization" in Iran led to his leadership over rapid industrial and military modernization, as well as economic and social reforms.
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