Procurement: <b>November 3, 2004</b>

November 3, 2004

A little-known fact about Irans armed forces is its defense industry. Iran has its own state-run manufacturing firm called Defense Industries Organization and is affiliated with the Iranian Ministry of Defense. The company produces a variety of equipment for the Iranian Armed Forces, the most significant of those being its production of small arms and light weapons. Among the weapons that it manufactures are locally-made G3 assault rifles, both fixed and retractable butt versions. The company also produces MG3 machine guns. Although older weapon designs, the G3 and MG3 are still superb, reliable weapons. Iranian Defence Industries also produces a version of the RPG-7 rocket launcher. Since 1979, Iran has increasingly been forced to rely on its domestic arms industry for weapons and spare parts since there are very few countries willing to do business with Iran in the military equipment department, Even countries like Russia, which has normally been compromising when it came to selling arms to corrupt governments like Iraq and China, have been reluctant to offer Iran large quantities of high-tech weapons. -- Rory Walkinshaw

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