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MiG-35 Sales - Egypt

Egypt watchers in the West greeted with surprise Russia’s offer in mid-2013 to sell MIG-35 and Su-35 fighter jets to Egypt as Washington withheld delivery of F-16s. The offer makes nonsense of US policy in the Middle East and North Africa. Moscow is willing to supply Egypt with MIG-35 and Su-35 fighter jets, which will be delivered to the Russian Air Force in large numbers within the next three years, after resolution of some technical problems found during final tests, said Russian Deputy Defence Minister Yury Borisov on 01 August 2013.

Russia planned to hold talks in Egypt next month over the latter’s planned purchase of MiG-35 fighter jets, reported Russian news agency ITAR-TASS on 29 September 2014. “They [Egyptian representatives] visited our corporation. We hope that we will be invited to technical talks next month,” Director-General of Russia’s Aircraft Corporation MiG Sergei Korotkov said. The deal, which was reportedly worth LE21 billion ($3 billion), was reported in February 2014 amid suggestions Egypt was aiming to reduce its military cooperation with the US, whose ties with the North African country took a turn after the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Voice of Russia radio announced the arms deal would be completed by mid-2014, after the election of Egypt’s next president. Vice-President of the broadcasting company Mikhail Viktorovich Riyabov — a military expert who was part of the Russian military advisory team during the 1973 October war — announced: “These deals will be put into effect in the near future. There is an agreement between Cairo and Moscow. However, the belief is that these deals should be carried out only when there is an elected administration in Egypt rather than an interim government. It is strongly believed in Russia that Field Marshal Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi will be the person who will govern Egypt and that these deals will be implemented at the beginning of his term in office.”

Russia agreed 25 May 2015 on a contract with Egypt to deliver 46 Mikoyan MiG-29 air superiority fighters (NATO reporting name "Fulcrum"). The deal is slated to be signed in the nearest future and is expected to be worth as much as $2 billion. The MiG-35 is only a highly upgraded version of MiG-29. The initial name of MiG-35 was MiG-29M/M2. When Egypt ordered the fighter, it was designated as MiG-29M2 but later got the name as MiG-35. So many initial report had mentioned that EAF bought MiG-29M2 while later report mentioned EAF ordered MiG-35. So actually EAF did not buy both MiG-29M2 and MiG-35, as both are the same aircraft.

Egypt received its first batch of Russian modernized MiG-29M2 fighter jets. “We have already received some of the aircraft, but not all. The execution of the contract continues,” Deputy Minister of Defense of Egypt Mohammad Al-Keshky was quoted as saying by Interfax 27 April 2017. Russia will provide Egypt with 50 Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter jets no later than 2020, following the end of manufacturing the jets. Russia’s MiG-29s were to replace its aging fleet of MiG-21s and Chinese J-7s. The contract would be the largest order for the MiG-29 aircraft since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Egypt ordered 50 MiG-29M/M2 aircraft in 2015, with deliveries between 2017 and 2020. An Egyptian MiG-29 crashed in Egypt on a training flight in November 2018 and another crashed during what was described as a routine training mission in December 2019. The pilots survived both crashes after ejecting safely. Two new MiG-29ss were delivered in 2020 as compensation for those that crashed due to technical malfunctions.