Egypt has reportedly taken delivery of a first batch of MiG-29s from Russia.
On April 26, 2017, Interfax reported the Egyptian Deputy Defense Minister, Mohammad al-Keshky, as saying, “We have already received some of the aircraft, but not all. The execution of the contract continues.” The comments were cited by Lenta.ru.
Deputy Defense Minister Keshky did not state how many aircraft Egypt had received or when they arrived.
He was referring to the Egyptian acquisition of MiG-29M/M2 fighter jets. Cairo purchased at least 46 MiG-29s in a $2 billion deal with Russia. Some reports have placed the order as being for over 50 MiG-29s.
The Deputy Defense Minister added that Russia was working to implement the contract as quickly as possible. Current plans call for it to be completed in 2020.
Egypt previously expected to receive two MiG-29s before the end of 2016, but it is not believed that such a transfer took place. Late last month, photos of Egyptian MiG-29 jets undergoing testing emerged on social media. These seemed to have been taken in Russia, indicating that the aircraft had not yet been delivered.
First photo of #Egypt MiG-29, still in Russia pic.twitter.com/KGkwuEqKK4— Derek Bisaccio (@DerekBisaccio) March 31, 2017
Earlier in April, United Aircraft Corporation CEO Yuri Slyusar told Rossiya-24 that deliveries would commence in 2017.
Tass News Agency quoted Slyusar as saying, “MiG-29 aircraft in interests of Egypt – implementation of this contract, training of pilots and deliveries of aircraft equipment will start this year.”
Military markets analyst, covering Eurasia, Middle East, and Africa.
