TSAMTO, November 17. On November 15, the French company Dassault Aviation announced the entry into force of a contract for the supply of 30 additional Rafale multipurpose fighters to the Egyptian Air Force.
The Egyptian Ministry of Defense announced the conclusion of this contract on May 4, 2021. After fulfilling this order, the total number of Rafale aircraft in the combat composition of the Egyptian Air Force will increase to 54 units. The first 24 fighters were ordered in February 2015.
As reported by TSAMTO, on February 16, 2015, a package of agreements was signed with the French companies Dassault Aviation, DCNS and MBDA for the supply of various weapons to the Egyptian Armed Forces with a total value of about 5.2 billion. euro ($5.9 billion). About half of this amount was planned to be financed by loans from French banks. The contract for 24 Rafale multipurpose fighters provided for the supply of 16 Rafale B/DM two-seat aircraft and 8 Rafale C/EM single-seat aircraft to the Egyptian Air Force. The cost of the aircraft was estimated at 3.6 billion. euro.
The first batch of three two-seat aircraft was transferred to the Egyptian Air Force in July 2015, the last fighters were delivered in November 2017. The aircraft are stationed at the Gebel el-Basur airbase (near Cairo). One of the planes crashed in January 2019.
On May 4, 2021, the Egyptian Defense Ministry announced the signing of a contract for the supply of 30 additional Rafale fighters. The cost of the sale was not disclosed, but according to media reports, it is about 3.75 billion. Euro ($4.6 billion). It is assumed that the contract will be financed by a loan provided by France for a period of at least 10 years. The French State Treasury has provided corresponding guarantees to several French banking institutions (Credit Agricole, Societe Generale, BNP and CIC).
Although this is not officially reported in the statements of the parties, the new Rafale fighters will probably be made in the latest version of the F3-R, which was recently announced to be fully ready for combat use as part of the French Air Force.
The F3-R standard includes software and hardware updates, including the integration of the long-range Meteor air-to-air missile system and the latest version of the Sagem modular AASM air-to-ground munition, the RBE2 radar with Thales AFAR, the TALIOS targeting container of Thales, the Auto-GCAS (automatic ground collision avoidance system) automatic collision avoidance system, the improved aerial refueling system, the SPECTRA electronic warfare system (Systeme de Protection et d' Evitation des Conduites de Tir du Rafale). There is no data yet on which of these systems were ordered by the Egyptian Defense Ministry.
