How Egypt Ruined the MiG-23 and Compromised Soviet Aerial Warfare Capabilities: President Anwar Sadat's Cold War Betrayal

[Abid123]

Following the overthrow of its Western aligned monarchy in 1952 Egypt emerged as a leading client for Soviet armaments, acquiring 80 MiG-15 fighters and 30 IL-28 bombers in an initial batch of purchases made in 1955 alongside equipment for the country's ground forces such as T-34 and IS-3 tanks and a range of artillery and armoured transports. This single purchase accounted for 85 percent of all weaponry shipped to the Middle East in the five year period from 1951-1956, and when supplemented with Soviet training it quickly turned the country into a leading military power unrivalled among African or Arab states. Egypt would subsequently receive new generations of combat jets, which for its Air Force included newer MiG-17, MiG-19 and MiG-21 fighters, Su-17 strike fighters and Tu-16 medium bombers - providing it with one of the most capable air wings in the world.

Egyptian Chief of Staff Saad Al Shazly

Egypt was able to afford this massive arsenal due largely to Soviet aid, regarding which the chief of staff of the Egyptian armed forces Saad Al Shazly noted in his memoirs:

"The Soviets have been as generous to the Arabs in price as they have been in quantity. Soviet weapons are cheap anyway: about half the price of their nearest Western equivalents. In addition, the Soviets offer munificent repayment terms, especially to countries in real need. Commonly, the Soviets will write off half the purchase price and give a loan for the remainder at perhaps two percent interest a year, with a grace period of three to seven years and repayment over a further 15 years."

Much of this debt would be forgiven, meaning weapons were provided almost free of charge. Despite this generous aid, which provided a very considerable material advantage both quantitatively and qualitatively, Egyptian forces notably failed repeatedly to effectively engage neighbouring Israel in multiple conflicts in the 20 years after 1955 - an issue which only worsened after Soviet military advisors were expelled from the country in 1972.

Soviet-built Tu-16 Bombers in the Egyptian Air Force

Despite signs of the beginnings of an anti-Soviet policy from Egypt's new President Anwar Sadat, who assumed power in 1970 after the death of his strongly Soviet aligned predecessor Gamal Abdel Nasser, the USSR continued to provide Egypt with state of the art armaments both to prepare for the Yom Kippur War in October 1973 and afterwards to further bolster its defences. While Egypt's material advantage in the field was overwhelming during the war, poor tactics due to political interventions by the president in military planning ultimately led to an Egyptian defeat. Seeking new combat jets which could better contest air superiority against Israeli F-4E Phantoms, Egypt was provided with the Soviet MiG-23 Flogger - a new third generation swept wing design which could outperform the F-4. The fighter integrated a new generation of sensors and air to air missiles, and Egypt was the second country after Syria to receive the jets. The first unit was operational before the end of 1974.

Ultimately the MiG-23 represented part of the last major arms delivery to Egypt from the Soviet Union, with the country's new president adopting a strongly westphalian position, pivoting to the Western Bloc and downgrading diplomatic and defence ties with Moscow. While Egypt was expected to have been a leading client for new MiG-23 variants then under development, and for new more capable jets which would soon afterwards be offered for export such as the MiG-25 and MiG-29, its defection to the Western Bloc would leave remaining Soviet partners in the region such as Libya and Syria in a far weaker position. The Anwar Sadat government would further go on to undermine Soviet and allied interests by providing the MiG-23 to the United States.

Syrian Air Force MiG-23

Chief of Staff Saad Al Shazly, who was subsequently removed from his position and exiled by the Sadat government, stated in his memoirs regarding Egypt's role in compromising Soviet weapons technologies including the MiG-23 and the new 2K12 KuB air defence system:

"The Soviet Union supplies its weapons subject only to two conditions: that they not be used against Soviet interests, and that their secrets be preserved. For reasons already given, the Soviet Union considers that the struggle against Israel is in its interests. And the insistence upon security reflects the fact that the Soviet Union supplies to the Arabs virtually the same weapons that it relies upon for its own security and that of its allies in Europe. In that regard, we may expect the Soviets to be in the future a good deal more demanding in their security requirements after the betrayal by Sadat. When he broke with the Soviets in 1974, Sadat put all the sophisticated Soviet weaponry Egypt’s armed forces possessed at the disposal of America.

The damage this did to the Arab cause was incalculable; its effects will be felt for years. When reports began to surface in the late 1970s that Sadat had even delivered four MiG-23 fighter aircraft to the United States, they were indignantly denied in Egypt. On 26 April 1984, the death of U.S. Air Force General Robert Bond while piloting a MiG-23 confirmed the secret that even Sadat had been ashamed to confess. But of course the result of his betrayal has been, and for years to come will be, not American but Arab deaths. The success of the Israeli Air Force in destroying 18 Syrian battalions of the Soviet made SAM-6 [2K12 Kub – the most advanced air defence system deployed in the Yom Kippur War] anti-aircraft missiles in Lebanon in June 1982, a victory which opened the door to Israel’s slaughter in Lebanon, was possible only because American experts had passed to Israel the results of their long study of those missiles, courtesy of Sadat, and their perfection of electronic counter-measures to defeat them."

North Korean MiG-23 Fighters

The consequences of Egypt's passing on MiG-23 fighters to the United States, a state of the art fighter which had barely begun to enter service, went well beyond the Middle East. The fighters were deployed by a range of operators, from Cuban air units in Latin America and Angola to North Korean and Vietnamese air units in East Asia as well as the Warsaw Pact nations and the Soviet Union itself. The defences of all these parties among others were seriously undermined by the actions of the new Egyptian leadership. The MiG-23 was a potentially formidable design, with its powerful Khatchaturov R-35-300 engine putting out the same amount of thrust as the F110 powering American F-15 and F-16 fighters which gave the lighter Flogger an extremely high thrust/weight ratio. Although suffering from overcomplexity and high maintenance requirements, and on earlier variants from limited situational awareness at close ranges, the fighter had the potential to perform much better as the design was further upgraded had the program not faced a serious compromise so early on. The MiG-23 remains in service in large numbers today in Russian reserve units, and enhanced variants are deployed by a number of former Soviet defence clients such as Syria, North Korea and Ethiopia.

Source: https://militarywatchmagazine.com/a...ies-president-anwar-sadat-s-cold-war-betrayal

 

[Solidify]

Yes Egyptians Jordinian's have reputation for bad mouthing brands based on the country of origin. Last year the Jordan's drone staff (after acquiring Chinese drones) criticize the Wing drones of China by saying specifically Chinese technology is not good enough for them to use?? If this is the attitude of Arabs than "sorry you are not gonna win any wars in future" !

They want a Golden brand name product to come and win wars for them basically.

Jordan military tries to sell off ‘knock-off’ Chinese drones

The Royal Jordanian Army and Air Force (RJAF) are attempting to sell more than two dozen aircraft, including six recently delivered Rainbow CH-4B unmanned air vehicles (UAV), built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).

www.flightglobal.com

 

[SQ8]

Clearly dictators and most kings have done zero service to any middle eastern country.

 

[The SC]

Egypt became one of the first export customers when in 1974 bought eight MiG-23MS interceptors, eight MiG-23BN strikers and four MIG-23U trainers, concentrating them into a single regiment based at Mersa Matruh. By 1975 all Egyptian MiG-23s had been withdrawn from active duty and placed in storage due to the Egyptian foreign policy shifting towards the West and thus losing USSR support.

Starting in 1978 China purchased from Egypt two MiG-23MS interceptors, two MiG-23BNs, two MiG-23Us, ten MiG-21MFs, and ten KSR-2 (AS-5 Kelt) air-to-surface missiles in exchange for Shenyang J-6 jets, spare parts and technical support for the Egyptian fleet of Soviet-supplied MiG-17 and MiG-21s. The Chinese used the aircraft as the basis for their J-9 project, which never ventured beyond the research phase.

Some time later the remaining six MiG-23MS examples and six MiG-23BNs, as well as 16 MiG-21MFs, two Sukhoi Su-20 Fitters, two MiG-21Us, two Mil Mi-8 Hips and ten KSR-2 were purchased for the Foreign Technology Division, a special department of the USAF, responsible for evaluating adversary technologies. These were exchanged for weapons and spares support, including AIM-9J/P Sidewinder missiles, which were installed on remaining Egyptian MiG-21s.

Six MiG-23BN/MS/Us were sent to China in exchange for military hardware; China used them to reverse engineer the MiG-23 as the Q-6 but since the Chinese could not reverse engineer the R-29 and build a reliable turbofan, the only MiG-23 elements that were used ended in the J-8II. At least eight were transferred to USA for evaluation.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-23#Egypt

BTW Egypt asked for the Mig-23 for the October Ramadan war in 1973 but the Soviets refused to sell them until after the war in 1974 when they weren't needed anymore..

 

[Gripen9]

So how did the Egyptians ruin Mig 23? Yes they may have supplied them to US later on, but that did not mean somehow US was able to sabotage the program? Israelis were able to steal a Mig 21s from Iraqi AF and share the details with US way back in late 60s how is that different?

Mig 23 on its own along with Su-7/Su17/22 were the worst designs to come out of USSR aircraft design bureaus and did not need Egyptian help to ruin it
They were no match for PAF F-16s even when flown by Soviet pilots. Israeli AF scored 82-0 against Syrian Mig 21/23 during 1982 Bekaa Valley Lebanon offensive.
The Indian AF phased out Mig 23/27 some years back but still fly their much older Mig21s.

 

[Hakikat ve Hikmet]

Clearly dictators and most kings have done zero service to any middle eastern country.

= 100% dis-service/betrayal/treachery/robbing/destroying.....

 

[Bossman]

IAF also screwed up on their Mig 23s and 27s.

 

[One_Nation]

I have yet to see an example of an Arab air force making good use of their fighter aircraft.

 

[FCPX]

Interesting back story on this.....

" Cairo had recently fallen out with Moscow with predictable results: less than one year after it started flying the Russian-supplied MiG-23 “Flogger” – a new and somewhat enigmatic supersonic interceptor that was greatly revered by US intelligence agencies – the Egyptian Air Force withdrew them from service as spare parts from the Motherland were withheld and their own stocks dried up. The situation for Egypt’s MiG-21s was only marginally better, thanks to more plentiful stocks of spares, but even these would not last for too long. Cairo did the only thing it could and made its MiGs available to China and the United States in exchange for new hardware and hard currency. America bought a large quantity of equipment from Egypt – MiGs, bombs, missiles, radars, surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems, and so on. But the jewel in the crown was the Flogger. Merlin cited a former Red Hat commander as saying: “In the summer of 1977, the Red Hats acquired from Egypt 12 MiG23MS ‘Flogger E’ interceptors and one MiG-23BN ‘Flogger F "

From the book RED EAGLES America’s Secret MiGs by STEVE DAVIES. Apparently the performance of the Mig-23 left much to be desired.

 

[Gomig-21]

Thank you, @Gripen9 for being truthful about the reality of the event and having the wherewithal to present it as it really is. It's refreshing to see someone who doesn't ride along and go with the flow simply based on emotion and preconceived notions that are biased simply because of their dislike of Egypt and Arabs in general. Good to see that.

the USSR continued to provide Egypt with state of the art armaments both to prepare for the Yom Kippur War in October 1973 and afterwards to further bolster its defences.

That article has several misspellings of simple words; that is always a sign of not only poor journalism, but obviously poor editing and most importantly, it adds to the questioning of credibility of such an article and the source in general. "Defences" in spelled with an s and not a c.

It's also obvious the concept is completely untrue and reckless lying with a massive bias towards Egypt when it says something so untruthful about
How Egypt Ruined the MiG-23 and Compromised Soviet Aerial Warfare Capabilities: President Anwar Sadat's Cold War Betrayal

lol, oh ma goodness and giving a "love" like to such biased idiocy and lies is just as shameful. But I did notice several Bangladeshi fellas also display hatred towards Egypt and EVERYTHING Egypt lately that it really saddens and disappoints me. I never knew that Bangladeshis also disliked Egypt and everything Egypt. But hey, now that I see their true colors, they can be full of hatred all they want.

That article is nothing but an unworthy piece of trash. Let's dissect some of the filth that was posted in that piece of crap, shall we? And straighten the record out as well, while we're at it.

While Egypt's material advantage in the field was overwhelming during the war, poor tactics due to political interventions by the president in military planning ultimately led to an Egyptian defeat.

Defeat? The result of the war and the Egyptian military offensive ended up with Egypt holding on to the entire Bar Lev line and all 16 forts as well as the most important part, all the territory it gained while the enemy was forced to retreat more than 1/3 of the way across Sinai, essentially losing a huge swath of land they had stolen in 1967. You call that an Egyptian defeat? I'd hate to see what a victory is construed as. So one side keeps all the land it gained while it killed almost 3,000 enemy rats, and that same rat lost all that territory and it defeated Egypt?! LMFAO!!!! People are such fools and not just that, they want to believe that lie and so they turn a blind eye to the reality of what happened because of their hatred of Egypt. That's ok, it puts things more in perspective.

Seeking new combat jets which could better contest air superiority against Israeli F-4E Phantoms, Egypt was provided with the Soviet MiG-23 Flogger - a new third generation swept wing design which could outperform the F-4.

The MiG-23 could outperform the F-4? lol, This article is so full of rubbish it's ridiculous. I won't even go into technical details about the two aircraft, suffice it to say that the people in the know are aware of how stupid that is.

Despite this generous aid, which provided a very considerable material advantage both quantitatively and qualitatively, Egyptian forces notably failed repeatedly to effectively engage neighbouring Israel in multiple conflicts in the 20 years after 1955 -

Another misspell, "neighbouring" is spelled neighboring. More journalistic and editing lack of credibility.

Anyone who is halfway familiar with these 20 years of war post 1955 knows very well the EAF was nowhere near quantitatively and not even close qualitatively to the x-nazis rapists of Palestinian occupied territory. Been through this so many times it's tiring.

While Egypt's material advantage in the field was overwhelming during the war, poor tactics due to political interventions by the president in military planning ultimately led to an Egyptian defeat.

"Advantage"? Funny how they don't quote the part in Shazly's book where he talks about how the US was fully committed as a partner to the enemy and worked with them throughout the entire war and beyond, with recon intel information and of course, Operation Nicklegrass.

Operation Nickel Grass was a strategic airlift operation conducted by the United States to deliver weapons and supplies to Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Over 32 days, the United States Air Force Military Airlift Command shipped 22,325 tons of tanks, artillery, ammunition and supplies in C-141 Starlifter and C-5 Galaxy transport aircraft between 14 October and 14 November 1973. The U.S. support helped ensure that Israel survived a coordinated and surprise attack from the Soviet-backed Arab Republic of Egypt and Syrian Arab Republic. WIKI

Not only did the US immediately share their SR-71 recon photos which showed the tiny gap between the 2nd and 3rd armies of Egypt to the enemy to exploit at the Japanese Farms (they were Japanese not Chinese) and worked with them throughout the entire war and after, including the filthy and sneaky work of Kissinger. Of course a Jew will help the Jews before he helps the Muslims, and we know how deceitful they are. Much of that had to do with allowing them to break the ceasefire to complete their TV show lol.

The Soviets replenished a bunch of stuff, there's no question about that and without them, Egypt would never have been able to execute the war it did and get the results it did. But their help was nowhere near the effort the Americans gave the enemy to help them from a major defeat. Instead, they had a little success in the end that never mounted to anything except a bit of leverage to get their prisoners back. The Soviets didn't do anything as far as working together with the Egyptians during the war, aside from the stock replenishing. This isn't a negative cast on them. Sadat didn't want their assistance and so they weren't tasked with it nor do Egyptians expected them to do so. But there is no comparison with what the US did to help the enemy. That should be made clear as day.

So how is this an Egyptian defeat? Let's expose this lying joke.

Did they force any of the Egyptian armies to withdraw? NOPE.
Did they force the Egyptians to do anything that reduced their gains? NOPE.
What ended up happening? Oh yeah, the filthy, land-stealing enemy had to withdraw over a 1/3 of their grounds which they LOST to the Egyptian armed forces or the war was about to continue. And they call that a defeat?!?!?! looool. Absolutely hilarious. There's the truth about that ridiculous, lie of an article that obviously has some dislike of Sadat and of us Egyptians. That's ok, screw them and those who support their hatred ten times over.

= 100% dis-service/betrayal/treachery/robbing/destroying.....

You still have no shame? After the trouncing you took on the other thread, you still show your hypocrisy in full daylight? I guess once a hypocrite, always a hypocrite. The Turks who allied and befriended that land-stealing enemy way back in 1946 and sucked off anything they had and never lifted a gun in anger against them have the nerve to speak against the Arabs who fought them and shed their blood and lives against them? That's laughable at this point.

 

[Maula Jatt]

I have yet to see an example of an Arab air force making good use of their fighter aircraft.

UAE is good

 

[AZMwi]

Clearly dictators and most kings have done zero service to any middle eastern country.

and most of these dictators are and were fully supported by US.

 

[SQ8]

and most of these dictators are and were fully supported by US.

Whatever works to project interests.

 

[PradoTLC]

By 1974 the F14 was there and F15 was in development/ service both were vastly superior to the Mig 23 …

It is possible that Sadat gave sensitive anti air radar missile tech to Americans. Those weapons were highly effective against thr IAF.

 

[Gomig-21]

It is possible that Sadat gave sensitive anti air radar missile tech to Americans.

It's also conjecture on your part to claim a "possibility" that could've happened and certainly couldn't have happened. What else do we have that might've or might not have happened by the "treacherous" Sadat and Egyptian "dictators"? Any more made-up possibilities?

Let's set part of the record straight that is not mentioned in all the Sadat and ensuing Egyptian bashing. First of all, there is no proof at all mentioned in any legitimate historical context that Sadat did this part of that shameful article except this supposed quote from Shazly. But I have his book both is Arabic and in English and I will go back and refer to it to see how accurate the quote is portrayed in that silly article and if there was any changes in it, regardless if they were minor or major. It's also important that one understands Shazly position when he wrote this book.

He was demoted from his position and chief of staff of the Egyptian Military when he was trying to convince Sadat to simply withdraw a dozen or so Sagger unit specialist whom had effectively destroyed hundreds of enemy tanks and had become proficient at it with the enemy not having any way to stop them. His idea was a great solution that would've stopped the enemy in their tracks from crossing the canal to the western side and attempting to cutoff the 2nd army in the north and the 3rd army in the south. This was a great plan that would've worked very well and not only that, would've allowed backup armored units to move further south and create a line of defense that would've completely stopped the enemy's incursion. Sadat was fearful that any type of withdrawal, even if it was only a dozen men with their saggers and 10 tanks from the 2nd and 3rd armies would create a severe morale problem with the soldiers in Sinai and cause them to panic. He refused adamantly and then fired Shazly on the spot. Later on Shazly was relieved of all his military status and was treated by Sadat as if he never existed in Egypt's military. He essentially has his record expunged and wiped out completely by Sadat because of Sadat's selfishness and ego and wanting to have all the reward for the success of the war. Remember, the entire crossing and planning for the enemy's counterattack that the Egyptian Army was incredibly successful at including the layout of all SAM missiles that shot down hundreds of enemy aircraft was all the planning of Shazly.

All of that ended in the self imposed exile of Shazly who went to live in London. Later on, post 1981 after Sadat's assassination, Shazly was interviewed by the BBC or some UK news network which asked him what he thought of the assassination and Al Islambouli who was the primary culprit in the murder of Sadat. Shazly responded with this: "He's a hero." As shocking as that was to hear, he went on to praise Islambouli as a hero just like all of them who were against Sadat's policy including himself!" This was a mind-blowing confession and statement that he would analogize his status as the same as the murdering Islambouli. His reasoning is that they are all part of the legitimate group that would martyr themselves for the right cause of a Muslim country against infidels who would not continue to fight that enemy of Muslims who continue to occupy Muslim lands. His point was that this was a large group that wanted to continue fighting until all occupied Muslim lands are returned to the Muslim owners no matter what needed to be done, and that traitors amongst them would need to face that fate which is religiously required, hence they all belong in that group and why Islambouli was a hero in Shazly's eyes.

The bottom line of all of this is that Shazly had the utmost disdain for Sadat and legitimately so. But to venture into those grounds of martyrdom for the right cause etc. was profoundly disturbing as well as an indication that perhaps he would say things that were beyond the truth, or at the least, exaggerate the truth to make Sadat look as bas as possible. That is undeniably a very plausible outlook to many of the comments Shazly made in his book regarding Sadat and not his input on the military aspects of the war. Those were all easily proven with many historical material to back them all up.

That brings us back to the article's quote regarding all the items that were supposedly sold to the US by Sadat and there is nothing that shows the SA-3s or specifically the SA-6s and their "sensitive anti air radar missile tech" was provided either. Those missiles systems were kept in the EAD units for decades and still till today are used as part of Egypt's impressive multi-layered air defense network. Why on earth would they keep them and use them when they know they're compromised in that manner? It's absolutely ridiculous. It's easy to pile on and that part is a blatant lie.

People forget how proficient the US became against the Vietnamese air defense units when they created their Wild Weasels program and after their first few attempts at heavy bombing of Hanoi and northern Vietnam where many of their Skyhowks and F-4s were hit and crashed and the B-52s were losing their important escorts, they developed the Wild Weasels using F-100 Supre Sabres and F-4 Phantoms to fool Norther Vietnamese radar installation to locate them through their own developed techniques which included turning the aircraft's radar for a short while, causing the SAM units to turn their on to activate a lock and fire the missile while the F-100s would then turn off their radars in time that the SAM units couldn't get that lock, but they had revealed their positions which gave the Wild Weasels easy locations of the radar installation and they would take them out just as fast leaving the SAM missiles bare and ineffective. They then started to use jamming signals and electronic warfare that worked just as effectively in not only pinpointing their radar installation locations, but also the missiles locations which were mostly SA-2s which Egypt used mostly as well as Syria. There is no question that these techniques were passed on by the Wild Weasel's and US military to the enemy amongst all Arabs to use specifically against Syria in 1982, but also during the October War.

The US was very actively helping the enemy during the war with not only the impressive hardware delivery of tanks and F-4s and many other critical information.

This is a much more legitimate article from a respectable and worldly renowned journalism network that is actually pro-enemy in its choice of material to chose to write about. It was also written in late 1972. The main topic of the article was the reason why Sadat kicked out the Russians a little over a year prior to the October War. A great read that describes the difference in the way the Soviets treated the Egyptian military and also the difference in military hardware that the US was providing the enemy versus the hardware the Soviets were supplying the Egyptian military. It goes completely against the lying of 'qualitatively and quantitatively superior to the enemy' that the OP article shamelessly lies about.

This is good for many of you, if you wish to read it and this long post also if you care about trying to be just a little bit objective about this topic. I will highlight and copy/paste the essential part here to make it a little easier.

The crucial reason for the Egyptian ‐ Soviet estrangement was the Russian refusal to provide Egypt with offensive weapons. The key to Egypt's conflict with Israel is not ground forces, as huge as the Egyptians have made theirs with Soviet help, but air power. There, the balance Is still overwhelm ingly in Israel's favor, and the Russians, in effect, refused to alter it for fear of an eventual confrontation with the United States.

True, the Russians provided Egypt with the most immense air‐defense system outside the Soviet bloc, composed of SAM‐2 and SAM‐3 missiles, but the system was essentially intended to protect the Egyptian heartland from a surprise Israeli attack. Despite intense Egyptian pressure, the Russians steadfastly declined to furnish their client with the offensive missiles or bombers that could strike Tel Aviv. They did give the Egyptians a small number of TU‐16 Badgers, but even these would be hard put to penetrate Israel's air‐defense system because they are slow, subsonic bombers that each carry less than half the bomb load of a single Israeli Phantom fighter‐bomber.

The United States, on the other hand, has increasingly supplied Israel with offensive aircraft. The Israelis already possess 100 Phantoms and 40 more are on the way; all of them can carry more than 10 bombs of 1,000 pounds each to Cairo, and at low‐level, supersonic speed. The Egyptian MIG‐21's are no match for the Phantoms, nor are the MIG‐23's at low levels; the half‐dozen Egyptian MIG‐23's (which were flown by Russians) cannot carry bombs in their present form. Not even the Sukhoi‐7's and Sukhoi‐7B's can approach the range and bomb‐carrying capacity of the Israeli Phantoms and Skyhawks. For in addition to the Phantoms, Israel has well more than 200 Skyhawks and possibly 60 operational Mirages. Egypt has many more tanks than Israel, but this doesn't matter. Even the Egyptian Army should seize a foothold deep in the Sinai, the MIG's would be completely out classed by the Phantoms, and the army would be pinned down by the Skyhawks.

“There is simply no comparison between the military power of Egypt and Israel,” observes one of the shrewdest military attaches in Cairo. “The only thing that counts is a striking force in the air. Egypt can have twice or three times the number of tanks as Israel, and a navy on the same scale, but in the face of Israel's superiority in the air, it can do nothing. This, more than any other, is the reason why Egypt has not—cannot—go back to war, save for a very limited war or a suicidal total war.”

And yet Egypt did go to war and successfully crossed the canal and took over the Bar Lev line and went forward into Sinai by 20 kilometers to the end of its limited SAM umbrella protection and held onto all of that until the ceasefire and beyond the phony 3rd army encirclement that only gave the enemy bargaining position for their prisoners to be returned. They were, in their pajamas!

Theoretically, the Egyptians had assumed control of most SAM‐2 sites more than a year ago, but in practice the resi dent Russian adviser was the key technician: with out him the missiles could not be fired effectively. Moreover, the Russians often declined to disclose to the Egyptians the intricacies of the missile sys tem, for fear that some day they might fire the missiles without Soviet consent. The Russians con trolled most of the SAM‐3 sites completely.

Compare that with the way the Americans were helping the enemy! It's like night and day. Soviets treated the Egyptian military personnel like crap and held back a lot of information and assistance that could've made a huge difference turning a huge and unquestionable victory into a smaller one that has been argued as a defeat in the silliest manner possible, ignoring all the military success and holding of the gained position and the defeated withdrawal of the enemy and its loss of significant territory, especially the eastern bank or the canal and its entire protection that was designed to stop any military incursion by Egypt. After that, the most difficult part for the Egyptian military was WON! While the enemy never had a difficult waterway to cross, not to mention a massive fortification that would also impeded its movement and incursion. Funny how many just simply ignore all those critical factors.

The rest of the article talks about the fighting that brewed and got worst between Sadat and Breginev and the mounting tensions that developed leading to Sadat expelling the Soviets out of Egypt. But again, the bottom line, despite the generous help from the Soviets, the point is that it wasn't enough to mount a strong war that would've been adequate for Egypt to secure a much larger victory and inflict a much larger defeat on Israel, and certainly not leaving any ambiguity on the result. But as I've mentioned time and time again, the end result of enemy withdrawal and Egyptian gains prove without a shadow of a doubt that this was an undeniable victory for Egypt.

The Soviets had gambled that they could continue to exploit the Israeli military menace, together with their control of Egypt's missile de fense system, to blackmail Sadat and to contain his room for maneuver. They miscalculated Sadat's devious character and the almost bottom less Egyptian capacity for ingratitude. For, in fairness to the Russians, it must be said that in many ways they had been decent and generous to Egypt, rescuing the Egyptians time and again from the con sequences of their errors, and at the cost of a dreadful drain of Russia's own resources.

And why was there this sense of ungratefulness? It was much more like frustration that the Soviets took it as ungratefulness. The bottom line, as the top bolded part and others shows clearly that they weren't interested in Egypt obtaining an unequivocal victory with the appropriate weapons that were denied to Egypt, and that they had other ulterior motives that were much more important to them than a solid Egyptian victory.

There is also the "Jewish" factor. How many Russian Jews were there in Russia at the time? After WWII, it was estimated by the Nazis that there were approximately 5 million Jews in Russia. By 1973 there were probably a much larger group of the population not to mention how many Russian Jews had already migrated to the occupied Palestinian territory. So why would the Soviet brass want to see an enemy defeat? Clearly they had that problem they needed to control and stop from happening.

At any rate, the whole point of this is to show the difference between Soviet and American assistance and how terribly incorrect the OP article is regarding that specific issue. I will post the problem with the SAMs and missile tech that was supposedly sold to America in a later post. Sorry for the long post here, but no other way to show it.

Source here.