So - if you were going to design a (real) combat aircraft for Iran...

[Bgray]

I think the first question needs to be asked: What is their purpose? Are we talking about an aircraft designed to handle the Saudi Air Force and other neighbors, or one designed with an eye towards fighting the US?

(Granted, I'd say in the last case: Save money on aircraft that are going to be destroyed, and spend it on missiles, is the best outcome).

 

[kaiserd]

Saudi Arabia and Iran’s other neighbour are generally equipped with the same or equivalent types as the US.
And Iran can barely overhaul in small numbers it’s existing US and other types.
And it’s “new” types to this point have been dressed-up/ slightly amended F-5s or fakes.
So realistically Iran would probably at most be able to develop a turboprop or light jet advance trainer/ CAS aircraft and even to that would need Russia or China to supply the engines.
And in a type-v-type comparison it would be inevitably inferior to it’s neighbors principal combat types, yet alone in comparisons with F-22’s and F-35’s......

 

[uk 75]

A bit of a tangent I know, but the late Shah was such an aviation fan that peopled joked he read Aviation Week in bed. Had his Iran not gone pfutch might it not have been churning out F16s and derivatives thereof and gone on to have an F35 production line