The story of 5.56×45mm self-loading rifles in Iran goes back prior to the Revolutionary-era. During the modernization efforts conducted by Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi to improve Iranian Armed Forces Capabilities, numerous 5.56×45mm rifles were tested. Among these rifles that are documented and tested by Iranians were FN CAL and AR-18 assault rifles. But the program didn’t adopt a new rifle and it ceased when Islamic Revolution occurred in 1978. In this article we will examine the history of Iran’s 5.56×45mm rifles.
Yousef Riazi
A Review of Iran’s Defense Industries Organization (DIO) Latest Products: Part Two
In this second part of our series looking at the Iranian Defense Industries Organization (DIO)’s current offerings we will examine AR-15 pattern rifles, precision rifles, and machine guns. In the first part of this series we examined the origins of Persian and Iranian small arms manufacturing and explored some of the DIO’s submachine guns and rifle offerings.
A Review of the Latest Products from Iran’s Defense Industries Organization (DIO) – Part One
In this first part of a series looking at Iran’s Defense Industries Organization (DIO) and its products we examine some of the DIO’s submachine guns and rifles.
Silah Report Podcast V33: Iranian Submachine Guns (1979-Present)
In our previous article we reviewed the history of different submachine guns which entered Iranian service during the Pahlavi era. In 1979, when the Pahlavi dynasty was overthrown by Islamic Revolutionaries, many small arms purchased by the former regime continued their service with Artesh (armed forces) and newly branded armed forces such as Sepah Pasdaran (the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps). There were a couple of submachine gun purchases made by the new regime in the 1980s from unknown sources, these purchases mostly were conducted by IRGC to arm their units, including a new unit called Ansar-Al Mahdi who are tasked with VIP protection as well Saberin and S.N.S.F. In this article, accompanied by an interview with the author on a recent episode of the Silah Report Podcast, we will examine the submachine gun platforms which entered Iranian service after the Islamic Revolution using photographic evidence.
Silah Report Podcast V33: Iranian Submachine Guns (1941-1979)
During the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Iranian military and law enforcement were equipped with a variety of submachine guns of Western and Eastern origins. Some were locally produced while others were imported in limited numbers. The main Persian word to describe a submachine gun is mosalsal (مسلسل in the Persian alphabet) which loosely means a ‘small arm that shoots continuously’. Here we will take a close look at examples of submachine guns that were imported or produced locally by the Iranian government during the rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi between 1941 to 1979 based on the existing information and photographic evidence. Also included in this article is a podcast interview with the piece’s author Yousef Riazi.