All of those. Anything above 37km (or 20 nmi) is considered beyond visual range for missiles.
The official definition of a BVR missile is: A beyond-visual-range missile (BVR) is an air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) that is capable of engaging at ranges of
20 nmi (37 km) or beyond.
The problem is that with the evolution of radar technology, the detection range became greater and greater and so air to air missiles production jumped on the bandwagon and once a missile attained a new and greater distance, they needed to develop another one with even greater range and so on and so forth. That was essentially the entire story to the development of the AIM-120. It went from A to B to C and then D and now the evolution of seekers and data linkage has pushed the creation of the AIM-260. Eventually they'll be shooting targets in space.
From my experience with speaking to pros whenever I get a chance, most of them tell me the ideal range is somewhere between 80km - 120km. Over that it's a shot in the dark and many of these guys either fly fighters now or flew them not too long ago.
Yep. All the ones I listed are right at or under 300km due to ITAR regs. CMs are considered offensive weapons which is the primary reason for ITAR's 300km or under limit. But you're 100% right as far as having them for defensive purposes; The old sports adage "a good defense is a good offense".
Yes, that's what I mentioned, just that we only have tidbits of info right now and nothing concrete. Egypt is a large partner in
IOC with Saudi, UAE, Qatar and so on developing all types of munitions including CMs.
In the past 2 years, Egypt has been involved with the UAE and its EDGE Group which looks promising. They've already developed the Al Tariq missile and made it operational. It's considered a glide bomb but has all the features of a cruise missile which some of the following variants seem to be headed that way. Both UAE & EAF F-16s and Mirage 2000s have been seen carrying them and even using them in Libya.
Then there's all sorts of tentative JV projects such as BRAHMOS with India and others with Brazil, Serbia etc. Even with Pakistan and Ra'ad if I'm not mistaken. As far as strictly indigenous CMs,
@sami_1 can tell you more about those.
Before we respond to the issue of Egypt’s need for cruise missiles, there are points that must be clarified
The global air force is suffering from contraction. The Israeli Air Force has shrunk from 850 fighters to less than 400 fighters.
The Egyptian Air Force has about 400 fighters. The number of fighters will be increased by acquiring numbers of light fighters or fourth generation Chinese fighters ++
In addition to fifth generation fighters
The Air Force needs cruise missiles, but with a new idea
Cruise missiles with low weight and long range
It was previously explained that the main cruise missile must weigh 700-1000 kilograms in order to be mounted on light fighters or heavy fighters in larger numbers for a longer range.
As well as cruise missiles with a long range, but with devastating warheads
Global trends are looking for cruise missiles with light weights of 300-500 kilograms and long ranges with a destructive warhead of 120-140 kilograms and with ranges of 300-800 kilometers as well.
To be downloaded especially on drones as well
The third category of conventional cruise missiles, such as Storm Shadow, weighs 1,400 kilograms but has a range of up to 1,000 kilometers.
Finally, hypersonic missiles weighing 1-1.5 tons at speeds higher than Mach 5.
F-4E can used as carrier
The Egyptian Air Force’s acquisition of Chinese-Russian Eastern fighters is imperative to obtain huge numbers of cruise missiles, at least 10 missiles for each fighter.
Egypt had requested from France an additional 300 SCLAP EG missiles, in addition to the 75-100 missiles it had previously obtained. It purchased 50 new missiles and obtained 25-50 missiles from the French Air Force’s stock.
The Russians, after the fall of a complete SCLAP EG missile, offered Egypt assistance in producing the SCLAP EG missile locally. They offered the same thing to Algeria as a blow to the French defense industry, which refuses to allow Egypt to produce military equipment of high value.
Egypt is talking about a cruise missile derived from the SCRAB 324 plane, with a range of 800 km, with a 300 kg destroyer warhead, launched from the F-16 & F-4E aircraft.
Egypt's production of missiles using engines such as the TRI-60/40 is continuously available to Egypt if it desires to do so
Egypt works on military balance with all its neighbors, whether Turkey, Iran, or Israel, and does not allow any of them to be superior, despite the West’s support for Israel to be superior, but Egypt balances with the diversity of suppliers, the diversity of equipment, and the exploitation of Egypt’s area and size as a larger country.
Egypt has a financing capacity 1.5 times that of countries like Pakistan, meaning it can provide funding to implement weapons projects just like Pakistan if there is a need for it.
Information about missiles always appears, such as Egypt negotiating the CM-400AKG with Saudi Arabia, and then disappears.
And even the CM-302 missile to replace the old HY-2/HY-4 family
Which was produced locally and developed several times and reached ranges of more than 320 kilometers in its latest version, but it has become old and heavy.
Egypt does not announce any weapon that has an impact, simply because any announcement will create greater military support for Israel. Therefore, Egypt does not announce its current capability, even in simple systems such as anti-tank missiles, let alone cruise missiles or ballistic missiles.
There is information available on the Internet that Egypt has undeclared programs to produce ballistic and cruise missiles.
Egypt possesses 600 different EXCOSET / HARPOON / OTOMAT missiles
The importance of this point is due to the fact that there are developments previously announced by America to raise the range of the HARPOON missile to a range of 900 kilometers several years ago. Simply put, there is a trend to raise the range of such missiles to 3 times its previous range.
We explained in previous responses that missiles such as the Harpoon and target drones that operate with turbojet engines use the same engine, and these engines have been built locally since the 1980s in Egypt due to their large numbers and the obsolescence of their existence means the availability of manufacturing techniques for them locally, which means that if there is a desire to produce cruise missiles, what can be exploited can be exploited. It is possible or even to use these engines to build missiles with newer designs with support from different countries. Many times, countries are used as a front and arms deals with some countries are used for the benefit of producing local projects.
Previously announced in the media, news that no one paid attention to. I explained in advance that the German companies with which Egypt concluded MEKO-200GP/EG frigate deals are helping Egypt produce a new surface-to-surface missile. Egypt simply did not obtain, for example, 130 French Exocet missiles that do not meet Egypt’s missile needs. It still needs 4-6 additional frigates, 4-8 corvettes and 20 missile boats, all of which require a new surface-to-surface missile in addition to replacing the older HARPOON missiles.
Things are not complicated, but simpler than some imagine. Even the old Harpoon missiles can have their engines used to produce new cruise missiles with a new design and integrate the engine into the new missile with the introduction of the new Egyptian anti-ship missile.
The Americans spoke a lot about the fact that Egypt had converted the SCRAB 324 plane, which uses a turbojet engine developed from the Harpoon missile, into a cruise missile with a range of 500-800 kilometers, by replacing the recovery parts of the plane with a 300-kg destroyer head.
So we return to the two points. The first is whether there is a need. The second point is to meet this need for missiles, whether locally produced or imported from abroad.
We had a proposal years ago, which was the KH-38 missile family, from which the 300-kilometre-range KH-36E1 GROM cruise missile was derived. To produce locally and develop other types with better performance, range, and destructive capacity at a low cost
There are disasters that armies face
The successes of the Palestinians in removing the prestige of the Israeli army, which represents a terror to the trembling hands of the Arab armies with their weapons.
It will continue to be a curse facing the Arab and Islamic armies that do not support the Palestinian resistance militarily
The Iranian military industry, which began with simple techniques and gradually developed over time, is a country that has possessed the resources and capabilities for 40 years and is led by failures, corrupt people, mentally disabled people, and charlatans.
Egypt's problem is fighting the private sector from corrupt people who control the government. They consider their control over everything to be like a dog holding a bite in its mouth that can never get rid of it. The argument they use is that the private sector is corrupt. The private sector is corrupt. It is the only one that succeeds in dealing with you.