It is widely regarded as a rebuilt and renamed American Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter/Tiger II [2] although Iranian authorities claim it is Iran's first domestically manufactured combat jet fighter.

On May 17, 2000, Iran's acting commander of the Air Force said that Azarakhsh had reached mass-production stage.

[citation needed] As with many previous indigenous Iranian developed weapons, no performance data has been released to verify official claims.

An unknown number of this generation have been built and are reported to have entered service with the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) on September 22, 2007.

[9][10] In August 2018, IAIO unveiled the Kowsar (or Kosar) jet trainer and strike aircraft.