The Egyptian Ministry of Defence has reportedly placed its very first order for Chinese fourth-generation tactical fighter jets, with an unspecified number of J-10C fighters. The contract was reportedly discussed on 19 August last and has been confirmed since.
Westerners ousted
Move over French Rafales and American F-16s, Egypt's future strategic and air defence force will be Chinese.
This lucrative commercial contract comes as Cairo has continued to strengthen its strategic and economic ties with Beijing in recent months, and follows its admission into the China-led BRICS bloc earlier this year.
This acquisition makes Egypt the second customer for the Chinese J-10C after Pakistan, although quiet and unconfirmed reports indicate that neighbouring Sudan had reached an acquisition agreement before the outbreak of an insurgency in the country in April 2024 delayed talks for a purchase.
From Cairo's perspective, its new fighter jets are reportedly intended to replace Egypt's ageing F-16 Fighting Falcons as these are gradually phased out of service. The acquisition has been suggested as an alternative to US proposals that Egypt should acquire the F-16V to modernise its F-16s. However, as the J-10C is considered to have superior combat capability to this upgraded F-16 model while having a similar overall cost, the Land of the Rising Sun will have got the better of Uncle Sam.
An obsolete fleet
With the exception of three squadrons of MiG-29M fighters ordered from Russia in 2015, Until then, all the fourth-generation Egyptian fighters equipping its air force were of Western origin. The acquisition of the J-10C being considered as a potential turning point for the country's fleet, in accordance with prevailing political trends.
Gaza, accelerator of this rearmament
Several intelligence reports detailing orders for the J-10C have emerged in well-informed circles, including Geopolitics.fr, whereas Egyptian officials have expressed growing concern within various international organisations regarding the Western-backed Israeli war effort in the Gaza Strip.
Cairo being particularly concerned that the Israeli operation aims to push the population of Gaza into Egyptian territory, via its Rafah border crossing.
The acquisition of these heavily armed and equipped aircraft is particularly notable when considering the current state of the Egyptian fighter fleet, which has long been considered almost entirely incapable of waging major interstate warfare.
According to experts, the nearly 200 F-16s that form the backbone of the Egyptian military fleet are considered to be among the poorest-performing fourth-generation fighters in the world, and have been heavily downgraded and restricted to using obsolete Cold War-era weapons—featuring no beyond-visual-range air-to-surface weapons.
Thus, combined with the goodwill of the United States on spare parts supply and the strict restrictions imposed on how the aircraft can be used, seriously limits Egyptian air power.
Leaning against its F-16s, The Rafale fighters supplied by France and ordered since 2015 are also suffering from significant performance degradation, notably the lack of Meteor air-to-air missiles, which seriously limits their combat potential.
A technological «Great Leap Forward»
Meanwhile, the Chinese J-10C will provide Egypt with two of the highest-performing classes of air-to-air missiles in the world., the PL-10 and the PL-15, which Western sources have widely acknowledged as being significantly more capable than their American counterparts, the AIM-9X and the AIM-120D.
For the Egyptian armed forces, who used Cold War-era variants of the AIM-9 and the obsolete AIM-7, this represents a serious technological leap forward, both deterrent and potentially repressive, of several decades in terms of performance. The J-10C will by far represent the country's highest-performing fighter in terms of air-to-air performance, and perhaps the most efficient on the African continent.
The fighter proved during simulated combat engagements that it was capable of outperforming modern «generation 4+» fighters nearly twice its size, including Russian Su-35s and Chinese J-16s, while its arsenal of compatible air-to-ground munitions is considerable.
The J-10C is considered to be much more capable than any fighter in the Israeli fleet with the exception of its two F-35 squadrons, with large-scale acquisitions potentially forcing Israel to increase orders for F-35s and invest in higher-performance air-to-air missiles for its aircraft.
«Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it.»
Gandhi – Politician, Philosopher, Revolutionary (1869 – 1948).
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