#qader

Seriously though, for a regime that boasts about a sizable arsenal of "ICBMs", wouldn't this actually make them look as, if not more primitive than the simian that they sent into orbit? To make matters more interesting, despite news reports that the monkey survived its intergalactic hijra, the images that were posted online say otherwise.

If you take a quick look, despite the significant difference in color filters (maybe we should hook them up with Instagram, despite the sanctions and all), it's not difficult to discern that the two images are not of the same monkey, implying that maybe the original adventurer had an inglorious demise? Not too worry though, according to Mohammad Ebrahimi, one set of pictures showed an archive photo of one of the alternate monkeys that ended up not making the trip.

With all the space monkey business out of the way, I'd like to visit a slightly more serious bit of business...The IRGC unveiled Iran's new F-313 fighter jet on Saturday (yes, this is the same country that struggles NOT to crash half of its commercial flights every year).

Named Qader, or conqueror, the new fighter jet, was designed for the "preservation of peace", which must mean that they are armed with daffodils and pixie dust instead of more conventional weaponry. Seriously though, at first glance it looks like a bad ass flying machine, but after browsing through several military tech blogs, it seems like quite the opposite. Some critics cited that the Qader could only be a mock-up model and lacked critical parts to make it function properly, and some went as far as to call it a remote-controlled airplane.

That having been said, the Iranians have a history of photoshopping missile tests and lying out of their asses, so I wouldn't worry about any of these bad boys flying over the White City any time soon....

(Later this week, we'll take a look at two new Iranian tanks...they are made out of plastic and include state-of-the-art Flinstone motor systems)

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