Egypt is going to buy China's J-10C advanced fighter jet!
As part of the modernization of the air force, the Egyptian government has already ordered an unknown number of Chinese J-10C series (export version) fourth-generation fighter jets, according to information provided by Egypt's Ministry of Defense. However, the country has not revealed the contract price of this new fighter jet purchase.
Egypt is expected to purchase approximately 24 to 36 of these advanced combat aircraft initially. Moreover, the contract value of this package, including logistics support, spare parts supply, weapons package, and training, may be approximately 2 billion dollars.
The Egyptian Ministry of Defense confirmed this deal on August 19. The country wants to implement this decision for the sake of deepening strategic and economic relations with Beijing. Especially in 2024, Egypt's Al-Fatta Al-Sisi government has completed the final agreement for the purchase of J-10C fighter jets to strengthen relations with countries after participating in the BRICS alliance led by Russia-China in 2024.
In 2023, Egypt decided to modernize its air force's aging 218 fighter jets. However, the Biden administration of the United States continued to show unwillingness to modernize the old F-16 fighter jets of the Egyptian Air Force and not to supply advanced weapons and missiles in the hope that Israel's security system could be at extreme risk.
As a result, Egypt has decided to buy brand new J-10C fighter jets directly from China according to its own customization instead of modernizing the old fighter jets as per the plan. With it, the Cairo government wants to ensure the procurement of about a hundred 145 km range P-15E Highly Advanced Air to Air (BVR) missiles made by China.
In fact, still mow, the most powerful, diverse, and modern air force on the African continent is the Egyptian Air Force. They have 218 older F-16A/B/C/D fighters as their first air front-line jet fighters. However, at present, Egypt's air force has 24 highly advanced Rafales, and the country has signed an agreement to purchase 30 more highly advanced Rafales F-4 series fighters.
The Egyptian Air Force also has 43 MiG-29M fighters, 19 Mirage-2000 fighters, 81 older Mirage-5s, and 18 light ground attack Alpha jets. However, Egypt does not have fast attack and air superiority highly advanced combat aircraft except for the Rafale fighter jet with a single tweeter engine. So this time, Egypt wants to gradually retire all the F-16 fighter jet and replace it with the low-cost Chinese J-10C fighter jet in the near future.
Source: Wikipedia, Voice of America Times, Voice of Eurasia Times.
