by JASSEM AL SALAMI

Some old but very interesting pictures of Syrian Mi-17s have circulated online recently. The pics show the helicopters with Iranian-made infrared sensors.

The open-source military blogger Oryx analyzed the technology, which he said allows “for even greater flexibility while flying attack sorties.”

It’s not clear how new the modifications are, Oryx added.

But we can safely assert that Iran’s defense industry carried out the updates prior to the 2011 uprising against the regime of Pres. Bashar Al Assad. We also know the regime’s not actually using the upgrades.

The state-owned Iranian Electronic Industries produces the sensor turret in the photos. The company has exhibited the turret at several domestic expositions. A private engineering firm in Tehran—which now produces remote-control weapon stations—designed the control system.

Iran’s army aviation wing and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Aerospace Force have a program for updating their transport helicopters with reconnaissance packages.

The program includes installation of a multi-purpose display screen inside the cockpit, plus a fixture for attaching and detaching different turrets containing surface search radars, forward-looking infrared systems and targeting equipment.

In many cases, the upgrades make the copters compatible with new Gatling gun pods, S-13 rockets and guided missiles.

A limited number of Iranian helicopters have gone through the upgrade program. For instance, Chinook and Bell-214 helicopters based near Isfahan—home to Iran’s nuclear program—got the updates. This is to help Iranian security forces patrol near the nuclear sites in case of an attack by saboteurs.