Image source: topwar.ru
AIM-120D-3
The US State Department has approved the potential sale to Egypt of a large package of weapons worth $4.67 billion – NASAMS medium-range air defense systems, 4 AN/MPQ-64F1 Sentinel ground-based radars and under a thousand missiles: 100 extended-range AMRAAM-ER (land-based) and URVV (which can also be used with NASAMS air defense systems) – 100 AIM-120C-8 AMRAAM, 600 AIM-9X Sidewinder Block II and 150 training AIM-9X CATM.
According to the US authorities, this deal will help maintain the security of an ally that is seen as a stabilizing factor in the Middle East. However, in fact, these sales are aimed at ousting China from the Egyptian market, which began supplying military products due to Washington's long-term refusal of full-fledged military-technical cooperation with Cairo due to "human rights violations."
- it is said in the Western press.
Image source: topwar.ru
NASAMS
As previously mentioned, in early July, the Egyptian military confirmed the presence of Chinese HQ-9B/FD-2000B air defense systems based on the Soviet S-300 complex. Moreover, statements were made about the possibility of expanding military-technical cooperation with Beijing, up to the purchase of J-10C or J-31 fighters.
As explained by the local military, they are forced to take this step by the actual US arms embargo, which, in particular, does not sell missiles for the F-16 fleet, which has over 200 aircraft and is the basis of the Egyptian Air Force. And without modern explosive devices and other ammunition, the combat value of this fleet of fighters, forced to make do with outdated AIM-7 Sparrow, drops significantly.
Thus, the US decision to sell a large batch of air defense systems and missiles is actually aimed at knocking down the purchase of military products from China, primarily fighter jets.
