The Egyptian army will be
acquiring the Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jet for the first time from Russia
as revealed by the media outlet Russia today when it was spotted that the
fighter jets are being headed to Egypt. The reports have been doing around
since earlier this year but the most we can come up with remains to be
speculations as neither the Russian nor the Egyptian side confirmed this or
made any official comments on the deal.
The United States has strong objections on this deal as it
fears superiority of the Egyptian army in the region. The news site said, “The sources indicated that these
heavy and long-range fighter jets would give the Egyptian army superiority in
the regional sky, which is why the US strongly objected.”
The first batch of
Sukhoi Su-35 have reportedly been taken from the Komsomolsk-on-Amur aviation
plant to European side of Russia from where it will be taken to Egypt. When the
talks were still going on, the US strongly condemned this move and even the
experts have said that if this continues then this can lead to tensions between
Cairo and Washington. Last year in march, Egypt had finalised the deal of $ 2
million to buy 24 Russian-made Su-35 fighter jets, including related equipment.
Egypt has been dependent
on Russia for a lot of arms and ammunition and this buy will be added to the
list of Rusian made weapons owned by Egypt which includes Mikoyan MiG-29M,
Ka-52 Alligator and S-300VM. If the reports to be true then Egypt is only the
second country to buy Sukhoi fighter jets after China.
The US secretary of the
state had warned Egyptian Defense Minister Sedki Sobhi of sanctions if the deal
continued under US CAATSA that prohibits the purchase of Russian military
equipment. He also threatened that if they don’t scrap the deal then it will
not be a defense deal with Egypt in the near future. While the former head of
Egyptian’s army, Major Gen. Nasr Salem has very adamantly said that no one can
question Egypt’s decision.
“Why doesn’t the US supply Egypt with the F-35 fighters that it supplied
Israel with, since it is objecting to the Russian Su-35 fighters deal?” he
asked, adding that Egypt's military seeks to acquire equipment equal to that
owned by Israel.
Comments
Post a Comment