【Military Subplane】Author: Lele.
The 3rd Egyptian Defense Exhibition opened recently, and Chinese first-class industrial enterprises once again formed a team to participate, and brought a series of export equipment models such as J-10CE and L-15. It is not the first time that Chinese and first-class industrial enterprises have participated in the Egyptian Defense Exhibition, but the attention they have received this time is completely different from the past. On the one hand, stimulated by the Russian-Ukrainian war, a large number of new equipment have been unveiled, and the first-class industrial enterprises have just brought a batch of new works, which is very eye-catching. On the other hand, Egypt has always followed the concept of diversification of national defense equipment, and in the case that Russia cannot be purchased by European and American sanctions, Chinese industrial enterprises have a new meaning for it.
A model of the J-10CE at the Egyptian Defense Exhibition.
As a matter of fact, Egypt has already done this once when it was unable to obtain Soviet and Russian equipment and turned to China for help. It was still in the 70s, and Egypt's carefully prepared Fourth Middle East War ended in defeat and turned into a huge internal pressure, which led to a dramatic change in its foreign political course. Marked by the visit of the then Egyptian Sadat to Israel and the signing of a peace agreement with Israel, Egypt officially withdrew from the armed alliance against Israel. The Soviet Union was extremely dissatisfied with this, withdrew its technical experts in Egypt, and refused to provide Egypt with maintenance and spare parts support, and the Egyptian army returned to poverty overnight. In order to reverse the situation, Egypt hastened to ask China for help - at that time relations between the two sides were good, and the Chinese industry was able to provide equipment similar to that of the Soviet Union on its own. Originally, Egypt hoped to receive free military aid, but on January 1, 1979, China revised its foreign military aid policy, so the military aid eventually turned into military purchases, and its scope and coverage were rare for a long time.
The Hongqi-2 has long been used in Egypt as a "guaranteed" anti-aircraft equipment.
The first to be finalized was 60 J-7s (i.e., J-7A), with a contract value of 200 million US dollars, which was the first large-scale arms sale recorded in China, and on this basis, the 611 Institute and the 132 factory seized the historical opportunity of the Iran-Iraq war, and later sold a series of J-7 modifications to all over the world. At the same time, after obtaining the J-7A, Egypt was satisfied with its quality, performance and delivery speed, and purchased Hongqi-2 surface-to-air missiles, Type 033 conventionally powered submarines and Type 053He frigates, a series of main battle equipment, which lasted for more than 10 years. In all fairness, in the past 40 years or so of China's leading industry in foreign arms sales, there have been many international buyers, but only Egypt and Pakistan have purchased so many arms of main battle equipment. It's just that at that time, Egypt was too hard to be pumped by the Soviet Union, so it favored Chinese equipment with fast delivery, reliable performance, and simple operation, and its performance was not outstanding. As a result, by the 90s, the level of military cooperation between the two sides had plummeted, and in the past 30 years, there has been little action except for 120 K-8s (purchased in 1999) and 32 "Pterodactyl-1D" (ordered in 2018).
Type 033 submarines of the Egyptian Navy.
In contrast, Egypt has purchased S-300, MiG-35 29M, Ka-52, and Su-35S and other equipment from Russia in recent years. The problem now is that the Su-35SE purchased by Egypt was forcibly stopped by the United States on the eve of delivery, and three years of work were in vain. And Russia has also found a home for this batch of fighters - Iran, which is expected to start deliveries next year. For Egypt, it is dangerous to rely only on Western Europe and the United States for equipment**, and Russia cannot count on it even if the war ends in the short term, and China will naturally become Egypt's choice in the new era. Especially in the field of fighter aircraft, stealth is now the general trend, but Europe has not been able to provide stealth models so far. The Egyptian Air Force must begin to install stealth equipment until around 2030 at the most, but at that time, only American-made F-35A and Chinese J-35 should be on sale in the world, and Egypt's choice is self-evident.
The entry of the Su-35s into Iran is already a foregone conclusion.
It is precisely because of this situation that the US media will expose the news of Egypt's purchase of 36 J-10CE in the middle of the year, although neither side has expressed its position on this so far, but in the eyes of the United States, this is just a matter of time, unless Egypt does not plan to purchase J-35, otherwise the introduction of Chinese fighters is only a matter of time, model and quantity. China is also sensitive to this trend, and participating in the Egyptian Defense Exhibition in the past two years has really brought a lot of good things: 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 significantly affected Egypt's arms procurement channels and is also a catalyst for improving the level of cooperation with China. It won't take too long to see China's ** in the Egyptian army. Judging from the equipment that China took out at the Egyptian defense exhibition, it is generally at the same level as Pakistan.
There is a high probability that the J-35 will enter service with the Egyptian army in the future.
In addition, the strong creativity shown by China ** Industry at the Egypt Defense Exhibition is also the key to attracting Egyptian and other users. For example, in the Russian-Ukrainian war, small individual aviation equipment represented by cruise missiles showed strong vitality. There have only been a few models exhibited in China before, and most of them are only in the initial stage of research and development, but this time China has brought a number of models such as CM-501X, ASN-301 and QN-202 in one go. Among them, the CM-501X can also be integrated into the UAV to achieve aerial deployment and range strike;The ASN-301 is based on anti-radiation warfare, a bit like the previous gameplay in which Iran used cruise missiles to shoot down US dronesThe QN-202 is a single combat equipment, which is somewhat similar to an ordinary anti-tank missile, but the size is greatly reduced, and a single person can carry launch equipment and several spare ammunition, which can be understood as a grenade with a greatly increased range and a slight increase in power.
CM-501X cruise missile at the Egyptian Defense Exhibition.
In general, with the improvement of the industrial level of China's industry, it has also begun to become the center in various defense exhibitions, such as the first drone in the past few years. However, sales are a very slow area of change, often starting in a few years or even a decade, so the total domestic export volume has not increased by leaps and bounds in the short term. However, the sudden Russia-Ukraine war has significantly affected the overseas share of China's leading industry, and with the passage of time, this impact has become a reality, and a new era has come.