Egypt since Nasir era always in quest of modern weapon and it seems its Egyptian govt mindset. Why such a massive buildup. still, Isreal is arch-rival in their mind or deep state policy or its Nile water threat? ..or Suez canal still under unknown threat?
@Gomig-21 @The SC
Ok, bro. honestly, I might contradict SC a little bit but Nasser was totally different from Sisi and things have changed cosiderably since them. As a matter of fact, a pole was taken as to who has been the best president for Egypt during the past 75 years or so and I honestly thought the pole would favor Nasser because he did a lot of great things with Sadat coming 2nd because of the success of 1973 and the peace after which brought back Sinai where it belongs but guess what, Sisi won the pole by over a 60% margin! That is because he's simply a genius despite the haters. What he has accomplished (not just militarily) but in Egypt. His harsh imposement on tarrifs have paid off and slums are being reduced (can you imagine the difficulty in that feat?) and he brought nuclear energy to Egypt which will make Egypt electrically able to export electricity. The haters are MB and Turkey fans but they don't have a let to stand on.
Ok, my posts have been long so I'll try to keep it short. Israel and Egypt have a 100 year peace agreement of which 42 years have passed but because on the Palestinian issue, it's a cold peace but still, a lot of diplomacy involved to the point where we can actually fly our jets over the Israeli border after notifying them to exterminate the pests in norther Sinai.
So this rapid and incredible military build-up is not really a build-up. It's a modernization. All the fighters and naval ships are old (well, many of them) and all the navies around the world now have these super stealthy and ASW as well a All PURPOSE frigates while we have donated US knox class frigates with old tech and Oilver Hazard which aren't bad and will probably keep them since even the US is using them still.
The Rafales are replacing the older Mirage vs and even with 53, it's still short on the number of 80+ Vs that we have. But they will take A LOT of pressure off the F-16s that were doing the bulk of the work.
The MIG-35 is replacing both, the super old loving MiG-21MF and F-7 Airguard. 46 is not even nearly enough to cover the number of replacements so we actually need more! believe it or not.
Type 209 submarines is not nearly enough at 4 and neither are the Corvettes at 4. We still need a lot more to get to the goal which is at least equal to what we already had.
The Typhpoon, forget about any logistical nightmares bro. Easy aircraft to maintain and link into our new domestic linkage and my guess at first that they were going to add them to the Rafales because it seems like a deal would never get done until yesterday we were all ecstatic, especially with Naval Group announcing the 2 air refueler, spy satellite and early warning radar.
The only difference that is a new addition that you can call getting ready to use against an enemy can only be for one thing, and you know what that is BUT, with the Rafale's range being very close to the Su-35SE but carrying fuel tanks while the Su-35SE NEVER carries any fuel tanks (but is capable) has so much internal fuel storage to make it to the GERD, use quite a bit of standoff weapons that are DEADLY, the dam will certainly be destroyed and it almost looks like that is the strategy. The SCALPS, HAMMERS all at standoff distances while F-16s or MiG-35s perform EADS operations first to protect all aircraft and destroy a lot of infrastructure and command center is why the heavy Su-35S is partly requested. But we never operated a heavy potent fighter like that and tried when we requested 12 F-15s and we denied. Frankly, Sisi is great that he doesn't show if on his face or comments, but he is probably the biggest Egyptian who has had it with the US neutering and is moving on while at the same time, certainly not make enemies with the US.
I hope Ethiopia comes to its senses but is doesn't appear so and that will put us in a state of war with them for a while. Unlike what Israel did to Iraq, this is vital to the Ethiopian economy and to destroy it along with a lot of associated and political infrastructure will ruing that country and set it back into a humanitarian crisis. It needs to be averted at all costs.
Rapid ,modernization is all it is.