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

simonov said:

How many J-10CE , Egypt plan to acquire?

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Nothing is known and in fact NOTHING is confirmed!

The crazy thing is that all of this is true: And some people in Chinese circles are murmuring that China senses its chance to achieve something big, as the global political situation is currently changing, many are actually looking for alternatives and, above all, the J-10 is practically a discontinued model. If this is true, the quantities for the PLAAF itself are slowly running out and the production line is thus "written off" ... so what's the harm in making nice offers to those who show interest, don't get an AMRAAM or Meteor, don't get an update on Blk. 70 with AESA, etc.? As I said, there is rumbling in the underground and China is patient, but also wildly determined, and putting a damper on the USA or the West here fits the picture.

But none of this is a FACT yet.

Egypt could just buy the F-16 upgrades from Turkey and get long range missile capability that way. Not that I expect the US to take that lightly.

gelgoog said:

Egypt could just buy the F-16 upgrades from Turkey and get long range missile capability that way. Not that I expect the US to take that lightly.

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But is this upgrade package ready and capable of what it promised to be? … and then, I’m pretty sure the US won’t allow it.

Deino said:

I’m pretty sure the US won’t allow it.

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Right. The US could just deny them spare parts supplies including engines. Then even if the Turkish radar and missiles work, Egypt would not have an aircraft.

Turkey and Egypt also have fairly tense relations in the first place. Turkey is a big backer of the Muslim Brotherhood. The previous Egyptian government opposed to the current military junta rule. They are both at loggerheads in Libya and each supports an opposing side. Libya also borders Egypt so the stability of the border region is a big deal for them. So the upgrade would be unlikely to happen.

It is just that the US nerfs so many F-16s sales to the Muslim world, that eventually Turkey might provide a major loophole around this.