Chinese and first-class industrial enterprises jointly participated in the 3rd Egypt Defense Exhibition, displaying J-10CE, L-15 and other export equipment models, attracting more attention. Under the influence of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Chinese and first-class industrial enterprises have brought a number of new works, which have received widespread attention. In addition, Egypt has always adhered to the concept of diversification of defense equipment, and in the case of inability to buy from Russia, the significance of Chinese industrial enterprises has become more important. In the 70s, Egypt turned to China for help because it could not obtain Soviet Russian equipment. At that time, Egypt was preparing for the Fourth Middle East War, which ended in defeat and faced internal pressure and foreign policy changes. Egypt's visit to Israel and the signing of a peace agreement led to Egypt's formal withdrawal from the alliance against Israel by force. The Soviet Union was dissatisfied with this, withdrew its technical experts in Egypt, and refused to provide Egypt with maintenance and spare parts support. To reverse the situation, Egypt quickly turned to China for help.
At that time, Sino-Egyptian relations were good, and the Chinese industry was able to provide equipment similar to that of the Soviet Union. Initially, Egypt wanted to receive gratuitous military aid, but on January 1, 1979, China revised its foreign military aid policy, and military aid eventually turned into arms purchases, which are rare in scope and duration. Initially, 60 J-7s (J-7A) were finalized, with a contract value of $200 million, the first major arms sale on record in the country. Based on this, the 611 Institute and the 132 factory seized the opportunity of the Iran-Iraq war, and later sold a series of J-7 modifications to all over the world. After obtaining the J-7A, Egypt was satisfied with its quality, performance and delivery speed, and purchased a series of main battle equipment such as Hongqi-2 surface-to-air missiles, Type 033 conventionally powered submarines and Type 053He frigates, which lasted for more than 10 years. In the more than 40 years of foreign arms sales of China First Industry Industry, although there are many international buyers, only Egypt and Pakistan have purchased so many arms of main battle equipment.
Egypt, which had long been under the influence of the Soviet Union, preferred to choose Chinese military equipment. Although these pieces of equipment are not outstanding, they excel in terms of speed of delivery, reliability of performance, and ease of operation. However, by the 90s, Egypt's military cooperation with China suddenly decreased, and there were few other actions except for the 120 K-8s purchased in 1999 and the 32 "Pterodactyl-1Ds" ordered in 2018. At the same time, in recent years, Egypt has purchased S-300, MiG-35 29M, Ka-52 and other equipment from Russia, as well as the Su-35S that have not yet been delivered. However, the problem for Egypt is that the United States forcibly halted it on the eve of the Su-35SE delivery, resulting in a three-year wait. Russia, for its part, has already found a new buyer, Iran, and deliveries are expected to begin next year.
It is quite dangerous for Egypt to rely solely on Western Europe and the United States for equipment**, and even if the war ends, Russia cannot be counted on in the short term. Therefore, China naturally became a new choice for Egypt. Especially in the field of fighter jets, stealth technology has become the general trend, but Europe has not been able to provide stealth models so far. Egypt's Air Force will have to start equipping it with stealth fighters by around 2030 at the latest, and Egypt's choice is obvious when only the American F-35A and China's J-35 may be available on the global market. Therefore, the United States ** disclosed the news of Egypt's purchase of 36 J-10CE in the middle of this year. Although the two sides have not yet expressed their position on this matter, in the eyes of the United States, it is only a matter of time, model and quantity, and unless Egypt does not plan to purchase the J-35, it is only a matter of time before the introduction of Chinese fighters.
China is also keenly aware of this trend, and in recent years, China has brought a lot of high-performance equipment to the Egyptian Defense Exhibition, including ZDK-03 early warning aircraft, Hongqi-9BE long-range air defense system, VT-4 main battle tank, SH-15 truck gun and M-20 tactical surface-to-surface missile. The Russia-Ukraine war has clearly affected Egypt's arms procurement channels and promoted military cooperation with China. It is foreseeable that in the near future, we will see the Chinese ** become the regular equipment of the Egyptian army. Judging by the equipment displayed at the Egyptian defense exhibition, the level of armaments in Egypt is roughly comparable to that of Pakistan. In the future, there is a high probability that J-35 fighters will begin to be used in the Egyptian army. In addition, the strong innovation displayed by the Chinese industry at the Egypt Defense Exhibition has also attracted the attention of Egypt and other countries. For example, in the Russian-Ukrainian war, small individual aviation equipment, especially cruise missiles and other equipment, showed strong vitality.
Before the country, only a few such pieces of equipment were demonstrated, and most of them were in the early stages of research and development. This time, CM-501X, ASN-301 and QN-202 were exhibited in China. Among them, the CM-501X can even be integrated into the Chada UAV to achieve aerial deployment and range strikes;ASN-301 is based on anti-radiation warfare, a bit like the previous tactics of Iran shooting down US drones with cruise missilesThe QN-202 is a single combat equipment, which is somewhat similar to ordinary anti-tank missiles in appearance, but the size is greatly reduced, and a single person can carry launch equipment and several spare bombs, which can be understood as a grenade with a greatly increased range and a slight increase in power. The CM-501X cruise missile, which was presented at the Egyptian defense exhibition, also attracted a lot of attention. In general, with the improvement of the level of Chinese industry, China has gradually become the focus of various defense exhibitions, just as the sales of drones have been very hot in recent years.
However, sales are a slow-moving area that often takes several years or even a decade to get started, so total domestic arms exports have not increased significantly in the short term. However, the sudden Russia-Ukraine war has significantly affected the share of Chinese workers in overseas markets, and over time, this impact has become real and ushered in a new era.