@Ali_Baba , apologies for this lengthy post. It's the only way I know to get my points across in as precise a manner as possible. Don't feel like you have to read it or even reply to it. Your choice or course.
Honestly. No name calling either way. I understand F16s very well, been following them since the Mid-1990's..
The latest contract with the USA had no mention of AMRAAMS.
EAF F16s only have old Sparrow for BVR capability - not very useful against an opponent with something like an AMRAAM
I appreciate your exchange and I don't mean to be harsh in any way. I don't think I name-called you, did I? I hope not and if I did, it wasn't intentional. Not my style whatsoever. It's just that the lack of BVR in the EAF is old news and has been covered ad nauseum on this thread and others, even on many other forums for over a decade.
But let me ask you, do you ever consider why the US bans them from Egypt, despite the EAF being the 4th largest operator of the F-16?
It's not like the EAF refused them. It's because the same entity that supposedly the EAF is losing sleep over is actually THE one that is scared crapless about Egypt obtaining not just the AIM-120, but also the Meteor and they even tried blocking the R-77 but lost that one. They're so worried about fighting an even fight because of one and only one reason. The last A2A battle that was fought between the EAF and the zionists was on October 14th, 1973 during the October War over the Nile Delta in the battle of Mansoura when the zionists tried to pull one of their sneaky sleazy preemptive strikes on the military airbase there to destroy all the EAF's MiG-21s & Mirages. They thought it was going to be a cakewalk like it was for them in 1967 but instead, they were ambushed by Mubarak -- who was the air marshal at the time and -- who organized the battle. Because of the extensive radars they set up prior to the war, he knew they were coming and was ready, didn't fall for their trap. The EAF ended up ambushing the zionists, knocking down 17 enemy F-4 Phantoms & A-4 Skyhawks to a loss of 3 MiG-21s in just one hour. The zios were shocked! Right then and there they realized that things had changed when in reality they never really did. The only difference was that the EAF never got off the ground to fight in 1967. So the zios never got a taste of what it was really like to fight against Egyptian pilots. There were several smaller scale incidents during the war of attrition, but nothing like what happened that day. That altered the zionists' perspective and they realized they had been lucky that they had never faced the EAF on equal grounds. Since then, that has been the primary reason why they bitch, cry, scream, moan & holler and try to block ANY advanced weapons sale to Egypt. Unfortunately, the US (and others) plays right into their influence as you well know. So it's not by choice. Heck if you think about it, the zios didn't flinch when Jordan got the AIM-120 for their F-16s. If there is ever any indication of their fear in the EAF, it's that right there.
EAF F16s only have old Sparrow for BVR capability - not very useful against an opponent with something like an AMRAAM
Yeah, sure. But what are we supposed to do, not use the F-16s with Sparrows to the best of our abilities? Or give up on them and not train harder and develop tactics that would work to our advantage knowing the shortcomings? Give up on them when they're essentially free with the Peace Vector program? Not use them in their superb A2G capabilities? Just like Pakistan Air Force, the F-16 in the EAF is equipped with SNIPER XR, FLIR & LANTIRN pods with a slew of GBU laser guided munitions and is a workhorse. In the A2A role, it's been tasked with all VIP escort roles for over 3 decades.
And just like the PAF, the block 52s are not that many (20), but they are fantastic and serve critical roles in the EAF. The 3rd one in this pic (F-16C) without the orange tail marking is part of the EAF's A2A Fighter Training Program.
There are also other ways to bring the fight closer using EW, spoofing, AWACS & ground control assets. There are also other reasons that "force" WVR combat more so than BVR.
An F-15 pilot who flew out of Germany as part of NATO once told me that A2A combat beyond visual range is not only overrated in his opinion, but throughout all modern A2A combat history since the introduction of BVR missiles, the number of times when it was actually effective is negligeable, at best. The stats actually prove that. IFF was the primary reason he listed because there was always the need to reduce the distance during interceptions to confirm IFF so as not to make a critical mistake. The other reason was because of the low probability of kill in BVR missiles. Rapid loss of fuel, depletion of energy and so on. Between the IFF hindrance and lesser effectiveness of missiles at greater distances, there's almost always the need to draw the contact in closer, especially when you're talking about two or more aircraft on each side. He said when it's only one fighter and seeing a dot on his radar at 100's of kms away that he couldn't identify, then maybe he takes the shot. But if you have a major battle going on involving 4 vs 4 or more, you can bet the distance will almost always get closer, even to WVR. The exact reason why you see AIM-9s. IRIST-Ts, MICAs and such loaded on aircraft much more often than you see AIM-120s or Meteors or even R-77s.
The common misconception of BVR missiles is that they're the end all be all which they most certainly are not. Is having them better than not? Absolutely. But they're effectiveness in real combat is not as touted as many think. What are more effective in A2A combat are the short/medium range high boresight missiles like the AIM-9X and the R-74 etc. A big reason why MBDA and Dassault concentrated on making the MICA IR & ER as advanced as possible because they understood those percentages. It wasn't until after they had the MICA in its advanced state that the Meteor started coming around. Soon we'll be seeing the MICA NG and hopefully get the gist of its touted superb capability.
I think that offer is on the table.
From what I know, indications seem to show the Tejas in the lead of all the offers ATM.
Russia is falling behind China in aerospace industry across the board.
Russia is the world’s second-largest arms exporter, accounting for roughly 20% of global weapons sales. Between 2016 and 2020, Moscow sold $28bn of weapons to 45 countries. India buys one-quarter of those weapons followed by China, Algeria, Egypt and Vietnam. China is the second-largest buyer of Russian weaponry at $5.1bn over the same period.
J10 / J20 / H20 / J-35 - all "non-Russian" origin ... China has left Russia behind.
And how many Russian designs are Chinese origin?
Look, I have no issues with China, quite the opposite. I would actually participate a lot more in the J-20 thread if it wasn't for that temperamentally unpredictable moderator, but that's neither here nor there, just affirming my affinity for China's incredible technological success and particularly with the J-20. That impressive endeavor has certainly made Russia's PAK-FA/Su-57 unintentionally look bad in terms of its development timeline. But the reality is that the Su-57 is one year ahead of schedule in comparison to the F-22 ATFC program. I actually did the math to see the difference in both timelines. China suddenly popping up out of nowhere with the J-20 threw everyone for a loop, especially the PAK-FA program. What an incredible achievement.
But as things currently stand for Egypt, it wouldn't make sense to go for something like the J-10, even with the prospects of getting the PL-15 as I've explained the reasons for not prioritizing BVR as the primary criteria of importance. Or even the detriment of the US' restrictions. The EAF has obviously decided the Rafale is the best choice for several reasons and with the next 30 jets coming starting in a few months, there are great possibilities the weapons package will be supplemental and include the Meteor. We already know MBDA has agreed to negotiate on the MICA NG which is a huge step forward. Heck even Qatar has the Meteor lol.
Along with more Rafales, my hopes are that somehow the Su-35SEs -- after seeing them still stored at KnAAPO with their EAF serial #s -- are somehow removed from the threat of sanctions and do end up coming to the Egypt to continue the original plan of building the "eastern block" of the EAF. Strengthen the MiG-29s and get the r-77-1, the R-27E even the R-37M. Then mentioning the lack of BVR and the EAF should be a crime punishable by 1-hour community service and a 5$ fine or both.