Safir (; , 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 visitors 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 anti-tank missile launcher to counter enemy tanks *A model equipped with

9K11 Malyutka The 9M14 Malyutka (; "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 man-portable anti-tank guided mi ...

anti-tank missiles (Probably Iranian produced Ra'ad) *A model equipped with Tosan 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 screen, smoke, or tear gas, gas warhead. Today, the term generally refers to a class of dedicated firearms firing unitary gre ...

*Command vehicle *Ambulance *Radio wave emitter *Tracked variant for snowy terrain *Safir-4 with extended chassis

Operators

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

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

. * : Made under license as Karaba VTG01. * : Seen in use with

Syrian Armed Forces The Syrian Armed Forces () are the military forces of Syria. Up until the fall of Bashar al-Assad's Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Syria Region, Ba'ath Party Ba'athist Syria, regime in December 2024, the Syrian Arab Armed Forces were the sta ...

. * : Used by the

Libyan National Army The Libyan National Army (LNA; , ''al-jaysh al-waṭaniyy al-Lībii''), also known as the Libyan Arab Army (LAA; , ''al-Jaysh al-'Arabiyy al-Lībii'') or the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF; ), is a component of Libyan Armed Forces, Libya's mil ...

Non-state actors

* Known to be used by

Kata'ib Hezbollah Kata'ib Hezbollah (), also known as the Hezbollah Brigades, is an Iraqi Shia paramilitary group which is a part of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), staffing the 45th, 46th, and 47th Brigades. During the Iraq War (2003–11), the g ...

, the Badr Army and

Peshmerga The Peshmerga () are the internal security forces of Kurdistan Region. According to the Constitution of Iraq, regional governments are responsible for "the establishment and organization of the internal security forces for the region such as p ...

forces. * Known to be used by

ISIL The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signif ...

and

Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was a Sunni Islamist political organisation and paramilitary group involved in the Syrian civil war. It was formed on 28January 2017 as a merger between several armed groups: Jaysh al-Ahrar (an Ahrar al-Sham facti ...

, captured from Iraqi PMF paramilitaries and Syrian government forces, respectively. * Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba * Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada *

Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH; Aṣaʾib ʾAhl al-Haqq, "League of the Righteous"), also known as the Khazali Network (), is an Iraqi Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary organization previously active in the Iraqi insurgency and Syrian ...

* Liwa al-Zulfiqar *

Liwa Fatemiyoun Liwa Fatemiyoun (; Persian language, Persian/Dari Persian, Dari: ), literally "Fatimid Liwa (Arabic), Banner" or Fatemiyoun Brigade, also known as Lashkar-e-Fatemiyoun (; Persian language, Persian/Dari Persian, Dari: ) or Fatemiyoun Division is an ...

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

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, ATGM variant with Tosan missile File:Sacred Defence Week parade, 2022, in Shahrud (012).jpg, ATGM variant with Toophan missile File:Islamic Republic of Iran Army Day, 2022, Urmia (049).jpg, Recoilless rifle variant File:2013 Sacred Defense Week Parade in Tehran (164).jpg, Tracked variant File:Display of military equipment in Shahrud (03).jpg, MLRS variant File:Safir4Vehicle.jpg, Safir 4 File:Iranian Police Parade in Tehran (2022) (34).jpg, Variant used by the Iranian Police

References

External links

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