Safir ( fa, سفیر; ar, سَفِيْر, Safīr, meaning "traveler") is an Iranian 4x4 multipurpose military vehicle built by Fath Vehicle Industries. The Safir weighs 1.5 tonne and is based on the M38. The jeep can be distinguished from the M38 due to the sharp angled body panels, hood and grille. It has been supplied to Iraq via militia forces since it is inexpensive and affordable to produce them in mass numbers.

History

The Safir was officially unveiled in 2008. In the ceremony, Iranian defense minister said that 3,000 Safirs were built in that year, and Fath industries would deliver 5,000 more vehicles to defense industry per year. The jeep was seen in public media outside of Iran with its use under pro-Iranian militias fighting against Islamic State. Sudan makes the Safir under license as the Karaba VTG01, which was publicly shown to visitor at the IDEX 2013 convention in the United Arab Emirates.

Variants

Safir has a modular build and has many models. These include: *A version equipped with 12 Fajr 1 107 mm rocket tubes. *A version equipped with a 106 mm recoilless rifle (M40) for use against enemy armored vehicles *A model equipped with a

Toophan The Toophan ( fa, طوفان "typhoon", rarely Toofan) is an Iranian SACLOS anti-tank guided missile reverse-engineered from the American BGM-71 TOW missile. The Toophan 1, an unlicensed copy of the BGM-71A TOW missile, began mass production in ...

anti-tank missile launcher to counter enemy tanks *A model equipped with

9K11 Malyutka The 9M14 Malyutka (russian: Малютка, links=no; "Little one", NATO reporting name: AT-3 Sagger) is a manual command to line of sight (MCLOS) wire-guided anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) system developed in the Soviet Union. It was the first ...

anti-tank missiles (Probably Iranian produced

Ra'ad The Ra'ad ( ur, رعد, "Thunder") is a Pakistani air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) . The missile was first tested in August 2007. Development and design The Ra'ad is a joint project developed by Pakistan Air Force's Air Weapons Complex and ...

) *A model equipped with Towsan anti-tank missiles *A variant equipped with a

Grenade launcher A grenade launcher is a weapon that fires a specially-designed large-caliber projectile, often with an explosive, smoke or gas warhead. Today, the term generally refers to a class of dedicated firearms firing unitary grenade cartridges. The mos ...

*Command vehicle *Ambulance *Radio wave emitter The Safir can be used to transport of heavy weapons like the Fajr 1 rockets, 106 mm recoilless rifle and

anti tank missile.

Operators

* : Used by the Iranian military. * : Provided Safirs to PMU

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

. * : Made under license as Karaba VTG01. * : seen in use with Syrian military forces. * : Used by the

Libyan National Army The Libyan National Army (LNA; ar, الجيش الوطني الليبي, ''al-jaysh al-waṭaniyy al-Lībii'') is a component of Libya's military forces which were nominally a unified national force under the command of Field Marshal Khalifa Ha ...

Non-state actors

* Known to be used by

Kata'ib Hezbollah Kata'ib Hezbollah ( ar, كتائب حزب الله, lit=Battalions of the Party of God)—or the Hezbollah Battalions—is a radical Iraqi Shiite paramilitary group which is part of the Popular Mobilization Forces backed by Iran. During the Ir ...

, the Badr Army and

Peshmerga The Peshmerga ( ku, پێشمەرگه, Pêşmerge, lit=those who face death) is the Kurdish military forces of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. According to the Constitution of Iraq, the Peshmerga, along with their security subsidiaries, ...

forces. * Known to be used by the

Islamic State An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

and

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) (, transliteration: ', "Organization for the Liberation of the Levant" or "Levant Liberation Committee"), commonly referred to as Tahrir al-Sham, is a Sunni Islamist political and armed organisation involved in the ...

, captured vehicles. *

Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba , war=Iraq War Iraqi Civil War Syrian Civil War , image=Hezbollah_al-Nujaba_Flag.jpg , caption= , spokesperson=Nasr al-Shammari , active=2013–present , ideology=Shia Islamism Vilayat-e FaqihKhomeinismAnti-West Anti-Zionism , allegiance= (IRGC) ...

Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada The Master of Martyrs Battalions, or Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada' (KSS) ( ar, كتائب سيد الشهداء, The Battalions of the Master of Martyrs) is an Iraqi Shia militia formed in 2013. Its stated mission is to protect "(Shia) shrines acr ...

Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH; ar, عصائب أهل الحق Aṣaʾib ʾAhl al-Haqq, "League of the Righteous"), also known as the Khazali Network ( ar, شبكة الخزعلي), is a radical Iraqi Shi'a political party and paramilitary group active ...

* Liwa al-Zulfiqar *

Liwa Fatemiyoun Liwa Fatemiyoun ( ar, لِوَاء الْفَاطِمِيُّون, Liwā’ al-Fāṭimīyūn, Persian/Dari: or ), literally "Fatimid Banner", also known as Fatemiyoun Division or Fatemiyoun Brigade, is an Afghan Shia militia formed in 2014 to f ...

* Saraya Ansar al-Aqeeda * Saraya al-Salam * Saraya Ashura *

Saraya al-Khorasani Saraya al-Khorasani ( ar, سرايا طليعة الخراساني, Sarāya Ṭalīʿa al-Ḵurāsānī "The Companies of al-Khorasani"), also known as the 18th Brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces, is a Shia Islamist militia formed in 20 ...

Gallery

File:Safir 1.jpg, Safir 1 File:SafirVehicle2.jpg, Standard variant File:SafirVehicle3.jpg, Standard variant File:SafirVehicle4.jpg, Command/Communication variant File:SafirVehicle5.jpg, Command/Communication variant File:SafirVehicle6.jpg, Anti-tank variant File:Safir4Vehicle.jpg, Safir-4 vehicle

References

External links

Video
{{Commons category, Fath Safir Military equipment of Iran Military vehicles introduced in the 2000s Military light utility vehicles