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egypt may purchase china's j-10 "raptor" fighter jets, becoming the second foreign customer of this type of fighter.

according to a report by cankaoxiaoxi.com on the 10th, citing the us national interest website, the j-10 fighter jet will soon serve in the egyptian air force. cairo has ordered the j-10c "raptor" fighter jet to replace its old us-made f-16 "fighting falcon" fighter jet. the aircraft appeared at egypt's first international air show and performed a flight demonstration.

when the egyptian air force is already equipped with third-generation fighter jets from the united states, france and russia, and is interested in purchasing the ef2000 typhoon fighter jets, why is egypt still looking for another third-generation fighter jet?

the j-10ce fighter jet equipped by the pakistan air force.

the egyptian air force’s “unspeakable secret”

in terms of fleet size, the egyptian air force is a very powerful air force in north africa. even if you look at the whole of europe, it can be called the "strongest king". the egyptian air force has many types of advanced fighters, including: the french "rafale" dm/em multi-purpose fighters that are being delivered one after another. the egyptian air force ordered 24 in the first batch, and then purchased 30 more, a total of 54. this aircraft is also the most comprehensive and strongest advanced fighter of the egyptian air force. 44 russian-made mig-29m/m2/ub fighters are improved versions of the mig-29. 19 "mirage" 2000em/bm fighters and 81 "mirage" 5e2/sde/sdr/sdd fighters are all models purchased by the egyptian air force from france earlier. their performance is already backward and has not been upgraded. the largest number of equipment in the egyptian air force is 218 us f-16a/b/c/d "fighting falcon" fighters, which are second only to the israeli air force in the middle east. in addition, the egyptian air force is also equipped with about 30 french alpha jet trainer attack aircraft for training pilots, and can also perform close air support missions.

although the egyptian air force has a large number of fighter jets in service and a wide range of models, it has long had many fatal defects due to its weak aviation industry foundation and being restricted by european and american countries in some aspects. in terms of improving the performance of its main fighter jets, the egyptian air force has been suppressed by european and american countries. in fact, due to its relationship with israel, european and american countries have "castrated" the air combat performance of the fighter jets sold to the egyptian air force to varying degrees, making it unable to pose a greater threat to the israeli air force.

the f-16 fighter jets exported by the united states to egypt have some performance disadvantages, and are lower than the f-16s introduced by israel.

for example, the f-16a/b that the united states initially sold to the egyptian air force could only launch the aim-9 "sidewinder" series of short-range infrared-guided air-to-air missiles, and could not launch medium-range air-to-air missiles, so it did not have the ability to engage in beyond-visual-range air combat. moreover, in terms of ground attacks, the f-16a/b can only use unguided aerial bombs or rockets, and cannot use precision-guided munitions. later, the united states agreed to sell more advanced f-16 c/d fighters to the egyptian air force, but only equipped them with aim-7 "sparrow" semi-active radar-guided air-to-air missiles, and did not provide the most advanced aim-120 active radar-guided air-to-air missiles. not only that, the united states also rejected the egyptian air force's request for a comprehensive upgrade of the f-16a/b/c/d fighters in service with various excuses. therefore, to date, all f-16 series fighters of the egyptian air force are still at the performance level when they were first put into service.

in fact, it is not just the united states, but also france. when france sold the rafale dm/em multi-purpose fighter jets to the egyptian air force, the only air combat weapon it had was the mica air-to-air missile, which has a maximum range of only 50 kilometers and cannot be called a beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile. the israeli air force's f-15i and f-16i fighter jets facing egypt are equipped with aim-120 and derby-er medium- and long-range air-to-air missiles with a maximum range of 100 kilometers, which give them a great combat advantage over the egyptian air force fighter jets in beyond-visual-range air combat.

the rafale is currently the most advanced fighter jet in the egyptian air force.

although egypt and israel reached the egypt-israel peace treaty in 1979, it is unlikely that a large-scale war will break out again. however, facing the powerful and obviously superior israeli air force, the egyptian air force has always been like a thorn in the side. in order to change this huge disadvantage, the egyptian air force had to turn to russia again and purchased mig-29m/m2/ub fighters. the aircraft has increased the fuel capacity and combat radius, and the most important thing is that it can carry and launch r-77 medium- and long-range active radar-guided air-to-air missiles. although from the actual combat situation of the india-pakistan air battle and the current russian-ukrainian battlefield, the actual range of the r-77 air-to-air missile is only 50 to 60 kilometers, not the 100 kilometers advertised by the russian side, but at least it gives the egyptian air force a certain strength to fight against the israeli air force.

in order to make up for the shortcomings of the f-16, egypt also introduced the russian-made mig-29 fighter jets.

later, in order to fill the gap of its own twin-engine heavy multi-purpose fighter, the egyptian air force signed an agreement with russia to purchase 26 su-35ses. however, under the strong and rough interference of the united states, and some pilots and ground crew had completed training, the egyptian air force was finally forced to terminate the purchase agreement. today, it is still a mystery whether these ownerless su-35se fighters will be resold to a third country or kept by the russian aerospace forces for their own use.

the importance of the j-10ce to egypt

today, the pla air force "august 1" flight demonstration team brought the j-10c fighter jet to the egypt air show. when the egyptian military saw the wonderful performance of the aircraft and learned the details, they must have been deeply impressed by this single-engine medium-sized multi-purpose fighter jet with the highest cost-effectiveness in the world. the author cannot confirm whether egypt has decided to purchase this type of fighter jet, but considering the current difficulties faced by the egyptian air force, the export version of the j-10c fighter jet, the j-10ce, is still very attractive to egypt.

for the egyptian air force, if the j-10ce fighter is purchased, its significance mainly lies in the following aspects. first of all, the egyptian air force, which has suffered from the constraints of western aviation powers, can finally obtain an advanced model with more comprehensive combat performance and sufficient to fight against israeli fighters according to its own requirements. according to the information disclosed at the air show, the foreign trade j-10ce fighter is equipped with pl-15e medium- and long-range air-to-air missiles that outperform the us aim-120-c7 or even aim-120d. in addition, the j-10ce fighter itself is equipped with a very advanced active phased array fire control radar, which is a powerful combination, making it enough to become the most powerful fighter in the egyptian air force in terms of air combat capability.

secondly, western countries, especially the united states, do not currently restrict the vast majority of third world countries from purchasing various advanced weapons and equipment made in china. therefore, the egyptian air force's purchase of j-10ce fighters from china will not be strongly obstructed by the united states at least for now. the most important thing is how many j-10ce fighters the egyptian air force is likely to purchase. in fact, the egyptian air force has many old fighters in service that need to be replaced urgently, including 81 mirage 5e2/sde/sdr/sdd fighters and more than 40 f-16a/b fighters with the most "useless" combat capabilities. therefore, the outside world is speculating that the egyptian air force is likely to eliminate the f-16a/b fighters first, and then its equipment gap is likely to be filled by the same number of j-10ce fighters.

furthermore, egypt and china have long had cooperation and exchanges in aviation equipment technology, which laid a good foundation for subsequent cooperation. after signing the egypt-israel peace treaty in 1979, egypt was not only regarded as a "traitor" by other arab countries, but also completely broke with the soviet union. in this case, in order to maintain the combat effectiveness of the egyptian air force equipment, the egyptian government began to purchase fighter jets from china. in august of the same year, the two countries formally signed an agreement, and china sold 44 j-6 fighters, 6 j-6 trainers and spare engines to egypt, with a total contract value of us$170 million. this was the first order for the export of china's domestically produced fighter jets. later, egypt purchased 60 j-7 fighters and 110 spare engines from china at a price of us$220 million. in addition to fighter jets, egypt also purchased a number of h-6 medium-range bombers from china.

egypt once introduced the j-7 fighter jets.

the largest aviation equipment cooperation project between china and egypt is the transfer of k-8e trainer aircraft technology and a full set of production lines. it can be said that the current foundation of egypt's aviation industry was accumulated bit by bit with the help of china. today, the egyptian air force is still equipped with 119 k-8e trainer aircraft, more than the pakistani air force, one of the co-developers of the aircraft. therefore, with such a good cooperation foundation and atmosphere, it is reasonable for the egyptian air force to purchase the j-10ce fighter.

judging from the current needs of the egyptian air force, there are too many models that need to be purchased and fill the gaps, not just in terms of fighter jets. for example, facing the threat of the israeli air force's f-35i stealth fighter, the egyptian air force once wanted to purchase the same type of fighter from the united states, but was rejected in the end. china's aviation industry currently has an fc-31 export-type stealth fighter. in addition, the egyptian air force is equipped with a small number of large transport aircraft, only two second-hand il-76mf. the y-20e, which china's aviation industry is promoting, is the world's newest large jet transport aircraft, and its performance also meets the requirements of the egyptian air force. at this year's egypt air show, the y-20 large transport aircraft also performed a flight show and was open to the audience. it can be said that the prospects for aviation equipment cooperation between china and egypt are bright.