The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force is the aviation branch of the Islamic Republic of Iran, founded in 1979 to replace the Imperial Iranian Air Force. They fought Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War and the United States in many clashes over the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean.
History[]
Iranian pilots
The IRIAF was founded to replace the 1925-founded Imperial Iranian Air Force after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and have ultramarine blue colors. Using Chinese and Soviet-built planes, they also pressed captured Iraqi planes into action during the Iran-Iraq War. The IRIAF carried out bombings and chemical attacks on Iraqi cities from 1979 to 1988, when the war ended. During this time, they clashed with the USAF over the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean in a war over disputed waters as well as a war over US support of Iraq during their war.
In the aftermath of the war, IRIAF received reparations by impounding Iraqi planes that fled to Iran during the Gulf War of 1990-91, pressing them into their service.