Persian Gulf & Middle East Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Saudi Arabia receives first F-15SA Eagle fighters

The first of 152 Boeing F-15SA (Saudi Advanced) Eagle fighters arrived in the Kingdom on 13 December.

Images showing the initial four aircraft, comprising two remanufactured F-15S (93-0857 and 93-0899) and two newbuild F-15SA platforms (12-1006 and 12-1010), arriving at King Khalid Air Base (KKAB) in Saudi Arabia were posted online following a four-day ferry flight from the United States via the United Kingdom. A further two aircraft are expected to begin the journey imminently.

While there has been no official word of the delivery from either the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) or Boeing, the event was charted on social media, by aircraft enthusiasts, and through internet radar tracking sites. The ferry flight was reportedly delayed slightly due to serviceability issues with the US Air Force McDonnell Douglas KC-10A Extender tanker aircraft that trailed them across the Atlantic Ocean and onwards from the UK.

As the most advanced variant of the Eagle built to date, the F-15SA features two additional hardpoints (from 9 to 11) and weapon systems; upgraded avionics (with a digital 'glass' cockpit, joint helmet-mounted cueing system, and a disorientation recovery capability); a BAE Systems Digital Electronic Warfare System/Common Missile Warning System (DEWS/CMWS); fly-by-wire controls; an infrared search-and-track (IRST) system; the Raytheon AN/APG-63(V)3 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar; and more powerful General Electric F110-GE-129 engines.

Deliveries of 84 newbuild and 68 remanufactured F-15SAs were originally slated to run from 2015 through to 2019. However, problems reported in development have pushed this schedule back by approximately 12 months. The part Boeing-owned Alsalam Aircraft Company near Riyadh is building the wing sets for the remanufactured aircraft.

As revealed in August, the RSAF F-15SAs are to be operated by 55 Formal Training Unit (FTU) and 6 Squadron (currently an F-15S unit) at King Khalid Air Base (KKAB) in the south-west of Saudi Arabia; by 29 Squadron (not currently stood-up) at King Faisal Air Base (KFAB) in the north-west of the country; and by 92 Squadron (currently an F-15S unit) and the Fighter Weapons School at King Abdulaziz Air Base (KAAB) on the Gulf coast near Bahrain.

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Egypt receives first Type 209 submarine at the shipyard of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems in Kiel

The Egyptian Navy officially received its first Type 209/1400 submarine from the German submarine specialist ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS).

The second HDW 209/1400mod class submarine (Yard No. 448) for the Navy of the Arab Republic of Egypt was named at the shipyard of thyssenkrupp Marine Systems in Kiel today. “S41”, the first submarine of this class which was named in December 2015, was also officially handed over to the customer at the event.

“S41” and “S42” are the first two of four submarines. Since the start of production of the first submarine at thyssenkrupp Marine Systems in Kiel, the construction program has proceeded on schedule and achieved further important milestones with today’s naming of submarine “S42” and handover of submarine “S41” to the customer.

The ceremony was attended by Markus Grübel, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Defense, Vice Admiral Rainer Brinkmann, Deputy Chief of Staff of the German Navy, Kurt-Christoph von Knobelsdorff, Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Employment, Transport and Technology of the State of Schleswig-Holstein and high-ranking representatives from Egypt.

Egypt initially ordered two Type-209/1400mod submarines in 2011 and later ordered two more in 2014.

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Today, on Thursday, December 15, 2016, the Rafale DM16 for the Egyptian Air Force (Al-Qūwāt al-Gawwīyā al-Miṣrīy) left the assembly lines of Dassault Aviation in Bordeaux-Merignac to join the air base 125 Of Istres-Le Tubé.

Before its delivery to the Egyptian military authorities, this two-seater Rafale will still have to carry out some flight tests in response to the specific requirements requested by the Egyptian airmen, including the setting up of the "nou-nou" configuration, normally specific to the Rafale M Navy.
This Rafale DM16 is the very first aircraft built from the beginning to the end on behalf of Egypt, while the previous ones (DM01 to 06 inclusive, and EM01 to 03 included) were originally intended for the French Air Force .

On the spot, he joined the first three Rafale EM single-seaters still in Istres, before their delivery scheduled to take place during the early part of 2017.
Egypt has yet to receive the Rafale single-seaters EM04 to EM08, as well as the Rafale two-seaters DM07 to DM15.

As a reminder, the Rafale DM01, 02, and 03 were delivered on July 20, 2015 in Istres, while the Rafale DM04, 05, and 06 joined on 28 January 2016 an Egyptian air base located a few kilometers from the city of Cairo , To be inducted into 34 Squadron "Wild Wolves" and the 203 Tactical Fighter Wing "Storm".

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