Egypt Officially Signs For 24 Rafales.

French Defence minister Jean Yves Le Drian was in Cairo on 16 February to sign the contract to supply Egypt with 24 Rafale fighters, a FREMM multimission frigate, and a large batch of MBDA missiles. He flew to Egypt with Eric Trappier, Hervé Guillou, and Antoine Bouvier: the CEOs of Dassault Aviation, DCNS, and MBDA respectively.

Egypt Officially Signs For 24 Rafales.

The arms package is valued at EUR5.2 billion (USD5.9 billion), with half of this financed by French bank loans - a clear sign that Paris is counting on the long-term stability of the government in Cairo.

Questions remain on the exact details of the deal, in which Egypt will receive 16 Rafale B two-seat and 8 Rafale C single-seat aircraft. The first three aircraft are to be delivered before 5 August 2015, in time to take part in the inauguration of the Suez canal enlargement project. 

Some sources in France suggest that up to six aircraft might be delivered by the end of the year. To achieve this there will be no option but to deliver aircraft already on the final assembly line (FAL) in Mérignac that were originally intended for the French Air Force, given that is takes six months to complete a Rafale on the FAL.

To make the aircraft compliant with export rules, their NATO-standard communication systems will have to be removed. Any two-seat aircraft on the line now destined for Egypt may have to have certain equipment related to the French nuclear mission removed.

The same issue will occur with the FREMM frigate, which will have to be taken from the French inventory in order to be available on 5 August. It has already been determined that Normandie , currently finishing its sea trials, will change hands very rapidly.

Regarding the missiles, MBDA declined to detail what was on the Egyptian shopping list, although there is little doubt that the MICA air-to-air missile will be part of the deal. It is uncertain, however, whether the Meteor beyond-visual-range AAM, the F3R standard of which will enter service in 2018, will be part of the deal.

According to some French officials, Egypt will also receive some Black Shaheen cruise missiles (albeit with a shortened range to comply with Missile Technology Control Regime limitations). After the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, Egypt would become the third country in the region with MBDA's cruise missile in its inventory.

Sagem, meanwhile, is another winner in Egypt, providing its Armement Air-Sol Modulaire (AASM) rocket-boosted precision guided munition. Because of a large reduction in French orders (down from 4,200 to 1,748), having to close the AASM production line as early as mid-2016 had been a real possibility. Now, however, the production run of the AASM looks set to continue a little longer.