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The Egyptian Air Force was initially a part of the Royal Air Force which established bases in Egypt during World War II. It is from here that Egyptian squadrons were formed and which eventually led to the formation of the Egyptian Air Force. Almost immediately after World War II, Egypt found itself in a conflict with Israel in 1947. The Egyptian Air Force contributed to this conflict with C-47 Dakotas and Spitfires.
After Nasser took power and decided to nationalize the Suez Canal, Egypt got involved in a war with Israel, France, and the United Kingdom. The result was heavy losses on the Egyptian side. It also forced the EAF to begin rebuilding it's Air Force with non-British help. The Soviet Union became the principal supplier of the EAF and many other Arab states. This allowed the EAF to greatly modernize and return to combat effectiveness.
Despite the Soviet upgrade of the EAF, when the Six-Day War came around in 1967 the EAF found itself destroyed in mere hours after the initiation of hostilites with Israel. In response, the Soviets again sent a large number of air craft and trainers to Egypt in order to help revitalize the EAF.
In the Yom Kippur War, the EAF initially performed well; carrying out precision strikes and engaging in dogfights with the Israeli Air Force. Despite it's intial sucesses though, the EAF lost about 200 planes at the end of the 18-day conflict. This again prompted the Egyptian government to look to the Soviets for rebuilding aid. This time, Anwar Sadat began to demand more modern planes that could compete with the American-built ones in the Israeli Air Force. The Soviet government stalled, and the EAF began purchasing French Dassault Mirage Vs and American F-4 Phantoms.
This, along with the Camp David Accords shifted a change in the composition of the EAF. The EAF began to rely on American, French and even some Chinese planes. In the 1980's, it acquired Mirage 2000s, and F-16s. The addition of these planes along with the ones already in the EAF give it an interesting composition; consisting of planes made in France, The United States, the Soviet Union and China. The EAF also has some AH-64 Apache helicopters, and recently has added K-8 trainers.
Currently, the backbone of the EAF is the F-16. The Mirage 2000 is the other modern interceptor used by the EAF. It continues to fly MiG-21s, F-7 Skybolts, TU-16 Badgers, F-4 Phantoms, P-3 Orions, Il-28, Dassault Mirage Vs, and C-130 Hercules among other planes
History
Aircraft
Insignia