Egypt buys 24 Rafale

[Neil Owen]

BBC story confirms Egypt will sign a contract for 24 Rafales on Monday. The first definite export order.

See www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31449564

[Thunder]

Wonder what that will be replacing, Mirage V/2000, F-4 or MiG21?

[Dazza37]

Egypt's F-4's are already long dead...

-Dazza

[Thunder]

No they're not, still two Sqns flying them 76 & 78 out of Cairo West.

[herbert]

Thunder are you sure the Egyptian F-4Es are still operational?

[MRTT]

According to Wikipedia they still have 34.

[Sharpy39]

Scramble has them down as operating 2 squadrons (76 & 78) of the 222nd Fighter Brigade out of Cairo west.

Here's a link http://www.scramble.nl/orbats/egypt

[Thunder]

Definitely still in service, there was even word about putting them through an upgrade similar to the Greek AUP/Turkish 2020 versions.

[Dazza37]

An Egyptian member of a particular F-4 facebook group is adamant that they are no longer operational, he only lives there, so who am I to argue...

-Dazza

[Thunder]

Where does he live, Egypt or beside Cairo West? I've looked into this and it seems that there is a lot of construction and upgrading work currently going on at Cairo West(has been for the last 2 years) for the arrival of the Peace Vector VII Blk 52 F-16's. It looks like the F-4's may have bolt holed to Abu Suwayr (maybe other bases as well)during the work and may or may not return. The E2 Hawkeyes also seem to have vacated Cairo West.

[Dazza37]

I hope you're right, and that Egypt's F-4Es are still operational (my avatar should give you a clue!), I don't know where exactly in Egypt this individual lives, but during a discussion last year about current F-4 users, he was quite clear that Egypt had stopped flying their F-4s around 2012. Of course it's difficult to gain definitive info so i'm open to convincing either way!

-Dazza

[Thunder]

If you Google Earth Abu Suwayr AB, you can clearly see 8 F-4's in the HAS complex middle South of the base, there is also a ninth F-4 outside the large Hangar on the West of the base. I highly doubt there are the numbers mentioned above still being active as there are several stored airframes dotted around Cairo West. The date of the satellite image is July 2013.

[TonyO]

I too, like Dazza have been told that Egypt retired its F-4s in 2012. But the Abu Sawayr sighting is interesting. Could they have moved there and become decoys?

[garyscott]

They could also be used as expendable targets in the event of an air attack, attacker wastes munitions on targets that are of no consequence, its been done before? Just a theory mind.

[Dazza37]

Had a look at the Google Earth image, if i were a betting man, i'd say they were decoys/derelict airframes. The base looks totally deserted, there doesn't even appear to be any cars, trucks or vans on the base? I know Scramble.nl lists it as a F-16 base but, there is usually some signs of life on an active airbase...

-Dazza