what! your f16's don't have aim120's? i doubt it
with every loan theres interest. so not only is France selling you equipment at very high prices there are also giving you a sour sweet.you have the luxury of not paying in full for them but you have to pay it back and theres interest. so the french are doing you over in two directions.
Egypt refused to sign the CISMOA that's why we're using AIM-7 Sparrow missiles, but Micas ER/IR and Meteors (may be black shaheens too) are included with the Rafale deal and with our Mirage 2000 .. Egypt also will purchase 46 Mig 35 with R-77.
Egypt has made the following deals which cost more than 15 billion $ maybe during just one year .. 100% of them are financed by Egypt .. only the first French deal which included the Rafales, the Fremm and the Gowinds was 50% financed by Egypt and 50% via a credit line from French banks.
France
24 Rafales to be equipped with Meteors, Micas and black shaheens
Fremm frigate (another one under negotiations)
4 Gowind corvettes (negotiations for 3 more)
2 Mistrales
Sagem Patroller UAV to be locally produced in Egypt
Germany
4 German Type 209 submarines
Russia
Ka-52 helicopters for the Mistrales (50 Ka-52 for EAF and 32 Ka-52 K for the Mistrales ..total of 82 Helicopters)
46 Mig 35 (many sources but needs further confirmation like the Mistrales)
S300 VM (Antey-2500)
R-32 Molniya missile boat
USA
20 F16 block 52+ with conformal fuel tanks (4200 km range)
4 Ambassador MKlll stealth missile boats
Spain
13 A400M Atlas tankers (Multipurpose military transport aircraft)
some rumors about the Spanish principe de asturias aircraft carrier that was recently replaced by the Juan Carlos carrier
European sources
NH-90 anti-submarine Helicopters for the Mistrales and the Fremm
I believe Egypt is the only Arab country that is not allowed AIM-120, all other Arab countries have it, SA on their F-15, UAE on their F-16, Kuwait on their F-18, Morocco and Bahrain on their F-16. you get the point.
I think coz all or the majority of them have signed the CISMOA .. Only Egypt and India refused to do that and considered it as a matter of sovereignty.
really!! first jets which i thought was un-nessary as they have 200+ f16's. then they buy a pair of mistral ships from France which is over blown and again unnecessary. and now a400m's France must be doing something to persuade them to buy their equipment.
i know France loaned them money to buy the rafales may be the mistral and the possible a400m order will be purchased via french loans too.
Egypt is working to have more and more long range capabilities .. Rafales, Fremm, Gowinds, Mistrales, F16 Block 52+ with CFT which has an operational range of 4200 Km .. Atlas jets are important to Egypt because they are multipurpose aircrafts which can be used as tankers for our Rafales and the coming Migs
The only other Arab country that didn't get the AIM-120 is Iraq, but that's because Iraq is not a real US ally, however Egypt is an ally to the US.
But Iraq didn't get the AIM-120 because US is reluctant to sell weapons to Iraq anyway, and Iraq doesn't need a modern airforce anyway, but Egypt's situation is different, AIM-120 to Egypt was blocked by Israel, F-15 sale to Egypt blocked by Israel, JDAM sale to Egypt blocked by Israel.
Israel is just fuked up
That's why the most important decision we have taken was diversifying our sources of arms supply .. Mubarak was mainly depending on the US, but they can never be trusted as they are ruled by Israel. Nowadays we're purchasing weapons from Russia, France, China, Spain, Germany (Type 209 submarines) and other European sources beside the US.
