A list of websites and other resources where we all find our information might be helpful to people who are just starting out and looking for information, or even for more knowledgeable members to find a resource they might have missed their first time around.
Photo Galleries - PersianFars News - Fars News is one of the most popular sites and generally has a fair amount off fair-quality photos from vast majority of military events. If i could only visit one site for pictures, this would be it.
JameJam Online - Excellent, high quality photos from most events.
Borna News - Another excellent source for high quality photos. My one complaint is that the photo navigation is a real hassle, unless you have the correct options picked, clicking on a photo alternately either opens a new window, new tab, takes you do a duplicate of the page you were just at or sometimes just simply summons spirits from the netherworld.
I might be exaggerating a bit, but to me it's a real hassle, but it's often worth it because Borna often has the best quality images.
Mehr News Like Fars News, Mehr provides solid, medium-quality pictures of most military related events. However the one difference is that Mehr News occasionally has a few exclusive image galleries.
ISNA Iran Student's News Agency. Mediocre, low image quality compared to the others and only carries pictures of major events. However, once in a very great while, they do get some exclusive stuff just from the different provinces.
ILNA Iran Labor News Agency Like ISNA, but even worse, i rarely even bother looking at ILNA for military pictures.
IRNA Islamic Republic News Agency. Usually has some good imagery (though quality is occasionally hit-or-miss), fairly solid choice like Fars News, it is good all around pick, though for some people (or at least for me) it occasionally fritzes out and won't let you view the image gallery.
IRINN Islamic Republic of Iran News Network. Hit or miss with quality, sometimes the best available on the web, sometimes ISNA/ILNA quality. Other then that, fairly medium overall coverage of all events.
IMNA Isfahan Metropolis News Agency. Only rarely carries military photos due to it being a local newspaper, but twice a year on Army Day and Sacred Defense Week, they usually have excellent photos featuring the units based in Isfahan.
Khameni.ir The Supreme Leader occasionally attends military events, and when he does, EXTREMELY high quality shots can be found on his website.
YJC Photos - A relative newcomer, has high quality images.
ISCAPhoto Galleries - EnglishThey're not worth it, if you don't speak Persian, all you need to know is what "photo" looks like in Arabic script
(عكس) and how to spot it on the Persian-version of the webpage. Or just follow any of the hyperlinks above as they go straight to the image gallery rather then the news front page.
Easy as pie.
Photo Galleries - InternationalAirliners = Prime resource for researching, not only does it have an extensive database of high-quality images, they are often indexed with serials, home-bases and other useful tidbits of information one won't find with Fars News.
Airplane PicturesNews Websites - PersianFars NewsIRNAISNAMehr NewsPressTVIRIBMasregh NewsNews Websites - EnglishPressTV and Fars News-English are easily the best English-language news sources available regarding defense news (note: news, not analysis)
PressTVFars News Official Military WebsitesSepah NewsAJABasijModlex (old page)Modlex (new page): It's worth mentioning that everyone who reads this should go to the Modlex site and read every single one of the entries. No joke, on a technical level, it provides an unparalleled amount of
reliable information on Iranian weapons systems
Defense Industries Organization (DIO)The Sacred Defense Official Military-Related WebsitesIran Electronics IndustryIsfahan Optics Industry Pars AviationShiraz Electronics IndustryRayan RoshdBlogsThe Arkenstone - My Blog, emphasis on indigenous Iranian weapons, though touches on larger strategic issues as well.
Uskowi On Iran - Fair mix of news an analysis from professional authors. Emphasis on political, defense and nuclear developments. Good for following day-to-day developments.
Arms Control Wonk - Doesn't always post on issues relating to Iran, however they occasionally have an article pertaining to Iran's missiles or proliferation potential. Worth following simply because they provide EXCELLENT technical analysis of both the nuclear program and missile developments.
Information Dissemination - Blog on general naval warfare issues that covers Iranian naval developments.
IMINT and Analysis - One of the better Google-Earth IMINT (image intelligence) sources available today. The author doesn't specifically focus on Iran, but has several excellent pieces about Iranian facilities, particularly air defense. Highly recommended.
Informed Comment - written by the most excellent Juan Cole who mostly comments on other stuff besides Iran (which is still worth a look), but occasionally does provide a liberal-left perspective from within the US.
General IraninsideIRAN Iran Tracker While it has a slight right-wing slant (it tends to portray Iran as a threat to the west), it also has fairly good information and overview such as foreign relations which i have found particularly useful. Very slickly put-together website.
Race for IranPBS Tehran Bureau - pro-reformist slant
The Iran Primer Monitor Mideast - General mideast news using primary sources. At least a handful of people from IMF are involved with it.
General MilitaryScramble on the Web Currently (Jan. 7th 2011) down. Contains a fairly complete OOB for Iran's air arms. Some of their specifics with regard to rotary wing aviation at least are inaccurate, but overall it's still a valuable resource.
Missile Threat - unfortunately, often contains old and unreliable data with regard to Iran's missile projects - use this site at our own discretion.
Flight Global - General defense aviation news
Defense NewsLong War JournalSmall Wars Journal - one of my personal favorites for COIN theory and the like
Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets (Google Books) - a bit outdated, but solid base of information
Center for Strategic and International Studies - Middle EastSpecific Articles/Photo Galleries/ResourcesMilitary Ribbons, pt 1 (pdf)
Military Ribbons, pt 2 (pdf)
Military Ribbons, pt 3Medals and Decorations of the Imperial Iranian Armed ForcesUniform InsigniaNAJA Police VehiclesEjection History - IranThe 2009 Iran ElectionWorld Public Opinion Polling: IranIran Public Opinion 2010The Robert R. Strauss Center for International Security and Law - Straits of Hormuz: Assessing Threats to Energy Security of the Persian Gulf Office of Naval Intelligence - Iran's Naval Forces: From Guerrilla Warfare to a Modern Naval StrategyThe Institute for National Security Studies - 4. - Sorry about the name, i don't know what the file is actually called, it's "section #4" or something like that. Anyways, it's a database on the IRI total military forces. It's set up with tables and charts. Dubious overall accuracy.
Topic: List of Websites and other Resources for researching the Iranian Military (Read 5084 times)