| Unit Name: | Egyptian Air Defense Forces |
| Native Name: | Arabic: قوات الدفاع الجوي المصري Arabic: Ⲡ̀ⲁⲣⲉϩ ⲙ̀ⲫⲉ ⲛ̀ⲕⲏⲙⲓ |
| Start Date: | 1968 (years) 1938–1968 (part of Artillery corps) |
| Role: | Anti-aircraft warfare |
| Size: | 80,000 active personnel[1] 70,000 reserve personnel 150,000 total personnel |
| Command Structure: | Egyptian Armed Forces |
| Garrison: | Cairo, Egypt |
| Nickname: | حصن السماء Sky Fortress |
| Motto: | إيمان, عزم, مجد Faith, Will, Glory |
| March: | سلاح الدفاع يرد المغير يصد العدو يلبي النداء |
| Battles: | World War II 1948 Arab–Israeli War Suez Crisis North Yemen Civil War Six-Day War War of Attrition Yom Kippur War Gulf War |
| Anniversaries: | 30 June |
| Identification Symbol Label: | Flag |
| Identification Symbol 2: | Egyptian Army ranks |
| Identification Symbol 2 Label: | Insignia |
| Commander1: | Major General Yaser El-Toddy |
| Commander1 Label: | Commander, Egyptian Air Defence Force |
| Commander2: | Major General Ehab El-Faioumy |
| Commander2 Label: | Chief of Staff |
The Egyptian Air Defence Forces (EADF) is the Anti-aircraft warfare branch of the Egyptian Armed Forces. It is responsible for protecting the Egyptian airspace against any hostile air attacks. The EADF was established in accordance with the presidential decree issued on 1 February 1968, which established the Air Defence Forces as the fourth branch, next to the Navy, Egyptian Ground Forces, and Egyptian Air Force. From 1938 onwards air defence forces had been part of the artillery and under the operation command of the Air Force. Egypt has a modern system of air defence armament, which is divided between anti-aircraft missiles long, medium and short-range anti-aircraft artillery systems and early warning radars. Both Western and Soviet bloc countries have supplied equipment.
Officers are mostly graduates of the Egyptian Air Defense Academy, located in Alexandria. The headquarters is in Cairo, and currently the Commander in Chief is Lieutenant General Ali Fahmi[2] and the Chief of Staff is Staff Major General Mohamed Darrag. In 2023 the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated that the EADF consisted of 80,000 active personnel and 70,000 reserve personnel.[1]
After role of aviation expanded during and after the First World War, Egypt saw at that time the formation of a limited force of anti-aircraft artillery enabling it to defend its main cities and economic centers in Cairo and Alexandria. Egypt began to form the first nucleus of the anti-aircraft artillery In 1938, the forces consisted of two regiments of anti-aircraft armed with 3-inch anti-aircraft guns. Since these cannons could not engage at night, as radar had not yet arrived, two searchlight regiments were formed, which were supplied with 90-cm searchlights. Anti-aircraft artillery, with its two sections, became artillery and searchlights, a branch of artillery corps.
Anti-aircraft artillery entered the battles of the Second World War is still in the cradle of training and development. The air defence battles were fought for the densely populated cities, with Cairo, Alexandria, Port Said and Suez specially important. The first quarter of 1939 was taken to confront the attacks of the Italian and German Air Forces around these cities, and due to the poor quality of the attacking aircraft in addition to the weak level of pilots, Italian aircraft were unable to carry out any successful missions against Egyptian cities except for some limited strikes on residential areas, offset by the shooting-down of a number of aircraft. In June 1941 the German Air Force fiercely developed its attacks on Egypt to cause a moral and material impact for the benefit of the Axis powers, resulting in huge losses of lives and property and did not succeed in achieving actual casualties with military targets, facilities and ports due to the fierce resistance of the anti-aircraft artillery that forced the invading planes to drop their bombs away from vital goals. These continuous attacks enabled the anti-aircraft artillery forces to gain practical experience and identify the tactical shortcomings and work to solve them, so they replaced the 3-inch anti-aircraft guns with their 3.7-inch counterpart with their fixed and mobile types.
Further tactical developments were also made, creating a curtain of intensive fire at a certain point along the plane's flightpath before it reaches the bomb-dropping line, and all its cannons are fired at a specific time that is set according to the speed of the attacking plane and the distance that was discovered, which resulted in good results at that time due to the speed Ltd. limited the quality of the aircraft at that time and the ingenuity of the Egyptian soldiers in the management of the hitting fire. In view of this success and the great effort made by the anti-aircraft artillery officers, the leadership rewarded them by sending them to scientific missions to gain more knowledge and skills at the British Middle East anti-aircraft artillery school.
After the Arab leaders announced the intervention of the Arab armies to liberate Palestine from the Zionist occupation, several Egyptian army units were ordered at the beginning of May 1948 to go to the eastern borders to participate in the war. A number of anti-aircraft artillery units of small and medium calibers were also dispatched, whose mission was providing protection to ground units against any air attacks by the Israeli forces. Anti-aircraft artillery was successfully able to repel attacks from Israeli aircraft which at the time had limited capabilities and were not able to influence the course of the battles, and due to the losses inflicted on the Israeli air force, anti-aircraft artillery units were able to provide aid to the ground forces in tasks other than air protection, and it was used as anti-tank artillery and as a field artillery, especially in the bombardment of fortified bunkers and Zionist settlements' water tanks.
Anti-aircraft guns were one of the Egyptian military strengths of World War II.[3] After the 1952 Coup d'état, further development of anti-aircraft forces was part of Egypt's military buildup.
In mid-1956 the formation of a decent number of units of light and medium anti-aircraft artillery began. Following the outbreak of the Suez Crisis, the Egyptian anti-aircraft artillery forces had to face a large number of modern French and British aircraft, which Egypt's old artillery systems that date back to World War II were no match for, to the point that coalition aircraft were strafing Egyptian soldiers and vehicles with their cannons at low altitudes. Nonetheless, the Egyptian AAA units succeeded at inflicting heavy losses on coalition aircraft, despite the lack of training and outdated equipment they managed to shoot down several aircraft over Cairo, Alexandria and Sinai, and in Suez the Egyptians set up a trap for coalition aircraft that tried to bomb the bridges that link the Sinai Nile Valley and the artillery units managed to foil their attempt at destroying the bridges. And in Port Said the artillery forces managed to hold out for several days against intensive air attacks.
See main article: Six-Day War. On 5 June 1967, the Israeli Air Force began air strikes on the Egyptian front in Sinai, taking advantage of the shortcomings in the Egyptian air defence. The Israeli Air Force only faced little resistance from obsolete anti-aircraft artillery systems, which were not suitable for dealing with modern, maneuverable high speed aircraft, resulting in a painful loss of life, land and equipment.
See main article: War of Attrition. Following the 1967 war, Egypt took the decision to reorganise and develop its armed forces, and included those decisions on Presidential Decree No. 199 issued on 1 February 1968, establishment of the Egyptian Air Defence Forces as a separate branch, standing alone, avoiding the previous weapons and units scattered among departments. With artillery and rocket troops were tracing artillery management units and radar warning and operations centers used to belong to the air force and the control points were given follow the Border guard.[4]
And confined all the means and weapons and equipment anti-air attacks under one command to ensure coordination and unification of responsibility and in order to achieve success, and in the 23 June 1969 was appointed Lieutenant General Mohammed Aly Fahmy as the first EADF commander, who took it upon himself to reorganise the forces and the management of cadres and personnel training and increase their level of tactical and tactical mission and technical, with a broad technological base capable of accommodating modern air defence weapons as soon as possible in order to deprive Israel of air superiority.[5] Near the end of the war, on June 30, 1970, Egyptian SAM units shot down four IAF aircraft (2 Skyhawks & 2 Phantoms) from this day to August 6 the EADF shot down 12 IAF aircraft (mostly Phantoms) that this week was nicknamed "Week of the falling Phantoms" this event brought an end to the war and start of Roger's peace negotiations. June 30 has become the EADF anniversary since then.
The establishment of the EADF required the establishment of a long-range early warning network to detect any hostile aircraft approaching the Egyptian airspace and provide enough time to warn the air defence and artillery positions, and secure the necessary critical information. This required a large and diverse number of warning systems to be used in full cooperation and coordination, and strengthening it with a network of visual observation points and equipping it with a flexible and continuous transportation network, providing steadfastness to it so that the enemy cannot destroy any part of it or blind it by means of electronic warfare.[6]
The General Command of the Armed Forces began to support the EADF with modern types of weapons, electronic equipment and anti-aircraft missiles that fly at low altitudes, and the EADF continued to establish sites fortified with the expansion of the country from Aswan to Alexandria and from Port Said to Matrouh, and the state devoted its material and engineering capabilities to build these sites in the shortest possible time, with the preparation of roads and the establishment of telecommunications. The Israeli leadership focused its air strikes on the canal line with the aim of sticking to the ceasefire lines and tightening its grip on that front, and identified the tasks of the Israeli Air Force in destroying Egyptian military sites, especially field artillery shelters, and preventing the establishment of new anti-aircraft missile bases in the channel area, and isolating important areas on The Egyptian front and paralyze any moves aimed at introducing or mobilizing forces in the region. To counter these concentrated air strikes, the EADF introduced anti-aircraft missiles to the canal area, and constructed anti-aircraft missile walls using the slow and steady crawl method by establishing fortifications of each domain and occupying it under the protection of its back-range. Other ranges extend to the middle of the distance between Cairo and the front of the canal, and the necessary field fortifications were established for 24 missile bases. Implementing a plan to deceive and absorb Israeli air strikes by creating structural sites. On the morning of June 30, 1970, Israeli warplanes that chanted Egyptian missiles that inflicted heavy losses on the Israeli Air Force were surprised, so that the rocket wall became a reality, and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir stated, In exchange for those great losses that occurred, Israel sought a ceasefire, but in the few hours leading up to the implementation of the ceasefire on August 8, 1970, the EADF managed to complete the missile wall on its final image.
See main article: Yom Kippur War. After the Six day war, Egypt managed to form a huge AA Belt of one division placing dozens of SAM battalions (Six missiles each) on the west bank of the Suez Canal. The plan was to repel the anticipated Israeli Air Force Counterattack on the Egyptian forces during Operation Badr using ambush tactics, where between 6 and 8 October alone, around 50 IAF aircraft were shot down. By October 8, the Israeli Air Force warned all their pilots not to fly over Port Said due to the density and danger posed by the Egyptian SAM sites.
In 1970 the Egyptian Air Defence Force consisted of four divisions:
The current structure of the EADF:
In 1989 a large share of the EADF's equipment was imported from the Soviet Union.[8] As of 1989, the most modern air defence weapons were the 108 medium altitude I-Hawk SAMs acquired from the United States beginning in 1982. These weapons were supplemented by 400 older Soviet-made S-75 Dvina (SA-2) SAMs with a slant range of forty to fifty kilometers and about 240 SA-3s, which provided shorter-range defense against low-flying targets. A British firm helped the ADF modernize the SA-2s. In addition, Egypt was producing its own SAM, the Tayir as Sabah, based on the design of the SA-2. The ADF had mounted sixty Soviet 2K12 Kub SAMs on tracked vehicles as tactical launchers. Sixteen tracked vehicles provided mobile launching platforms for its fifty French-manufactured Crotale SAM launchers. Egypt was also introducing its own composite gun-missile-radar system known as Amoun (Skyguard), integrating radar-guided twin 23mm guns with Sparrow and Egyptian Ayn as Saqr SAMs.
By the end of 2008, with the support of the United States (through Foreign Military Financing and private contractors and firms) all missile, radar, observation posts, command and control systems were to be linked into a complex multi-level, national computerized early-warning air defence command and control system via modified EC-130H Hercules (modified to AWACS-like specifications) transport aircraft, EW AWACS E-2C Hawkeye 2000, EW ECM Beechcraft 1900 ELINT, and an underground sheltered-reinforced fiber-optic network.
In 2014 the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated that the EADF consisted of 30,000 officers & soldiers plus 50,000 conscripts.[9]
The EADF is undergoing extensive modernization with budgetary constraints being the only hindrance. Currently, it is believed to possess the following weaponry:
| Long Range Air Defence | 4 Battalions[11] | Preparation to receive the S-300VM were under way in November 2014[12] First components delivered in March 2015.[13] AA Range = 200 km, AA Ceiling = 30 km, Speed = Mach 5, ABM Range = 40 km.[14] | |||||
| Medium Range Air Defence | IRIS-T SLM, SLX, SLS | 7 SLM Systems, 10 SLX systems, 6 SLS systems[15] [16] [17] | The German government approved the sale of 7 IRIS-T SLM tactical medium range AD systems to Egypt in September 2018. | ||||
| Medium Range Air Defence | Tayer el-Sabah SA-2 | 100 | 100 units were delivered by USSR from 1970 to 1972 for use in the Yom Kippur War. The Egyptians were impressed by the system's performance and acquired a local production license from the USSR. AA Range = 45 km, AA Ceiling = 25 km, Speed = Mach 3.5, ABM = none | ||||
| M1-2 M2 (SA-17) | The Buk-M2 was not previously known to be in Egyptian service until it was revealed in a video of an air defence exercise released on 2 November 2014 by the MoD.[18] AA Range = 45 km, AA Ceiling = 14 km, Speed = Mach 3.0 | ||||||
| Phase III | 62 | On 25 February 2014, Egypt ordered new 186 rocket motors to extend the life of their Hawk batteries.[19] Since there are 3 missiles per launch unit then one can deduce that Egypt plans to maintain 62 launcher systems. AA Range = 50 km, AA Ceiling = 14 km, Speed = Mach 2.4 | |||||
| 2M (SA-3) | 70 | Originally Egypt received 200 units from USSR between 1970 and 1972[20] and they were used extensively during the Yom Kippur War. These units aged and some of them were upgraded to Pechora-2M version. As of December 2008, 70 Pechora-2M upgraded ramp-launched missiles had been ordered by Egypt.[21] AA Range = 35 km, AA Ceiling = 18 km, Speed = Mach 3.1 | |||||
| SA-6 | 56[22] | Purchased from the Soviet Union after the disastrous 6 Day War and was used to great effect in the Yom Kippur War virtually denying the entire air space of Egypt to Israel. The system was modernized and is still in service. AA Range = 24 km, AA Ceiling = 14 km, Speed = Mach 2.8 | |||||
| Short Range Air Defence | M1 M2 (SA-15) | 16 | 16 units were purchased from Russia.[23] The Tor-M2 was not previously known to be in Egyptian service until it was revealed in a video of an air defence exercise released on 2 November 2014 by the MoD. AA Range = 12 km, AA Ceiling = 6 km, Speed = Mach 2.5 | ||||
| 75 | Egypt originally ordered 50 units, but in 2006 it chose to order a further 25 units which all were delivered by September 2008.[24] AA Range = 8 km, AA Ceiling = 8 km, Speed = Mach 2.2 | ||||||
| VT-1 | 36[25] | Purchased from France in 1980.[26] AA Range = 11 km, AA Ceiling = 6 km, Speed = 3.53 | |||||
| MIM-72C[27] | 280[28] [29] | Purchased from U.S. stock in 1987,2014 AA Range = 9 km, AA Ceiling = 4 km, Speed = Mach 1.5 | |||||
| SA-9 | 20 | AA Range = 4.2 km, AA Ceiling = 3.5 km, Speed = Mach 1.8 | |||||
| | |||||||
| Upgraded version of the ZU-23-2 twin 23 mm self-propelled anti-aircraft guns radar guided (148) with Sakr Eye SAM 2X2 on M113, Upgraded version of the ZU-23-2 twin 23 mm self-propelled anti-aircraft guns radar guided with Stinger SAM (3X2) (72) on M113, 108 | |||||||
| 350 in 1995.[30] 330 were delivered from USSR, also a new contract was signed with Russia in 2005.[31] | |||||||
| 40 | 100 ordered in 1960 from Soviet Union and delivered between 1961 and 1962,[32] with 40 remaining in storage today.[33] | ||||||
| Towed AA/SHORAD (35 mm) | Amoun | 36 | 72 GDF units used with one Skyguard unit and two Sparrow SAM launchers per battery | ||||
| Towed AA (20 mm) | 72 | ||||||
| Towed AA (14.5 mm) | 200 | ||||||
| Towed AA (23 mm) | 280 | 280 as Nile 23 and Sinai 23, and 650 upgraded with radar guidance | |||||
| Towed AA (37 mm) | 200 | 700 | |||||
| Towed AA (57 mm) | 200 | 600 | |||||
| Towed AA (85 mm) | 400 | ||||||
| Towed AA (100 mm) | 200 | ||||||
| Towed AA (130 mm) | [34] | 120 |
| Fan Song| PRV-11| P-12 radar| Straight Flush| P-19 radar| P-30 radar| P-40 radar| SNR-125| P-15 radar| Skyguard| Fire Dome| Snow Drift| Scrum Half| engagement| post 3m| P-15 radar| EADS 3D TRS| AN/SPS-49| AN/SPS-40| AN/SPS-67| ESR-32A| JYL-1 Radar | Selex RAT-31DL| Polyana-D4| AN/MPQ-50| AN/MPQ-62| AN/SPS-48| AN/MPQ-46| AN/TPS-59| AN/MPQ-64| AN/MPQ-53| AN/MPQ-65| AN/VRC-92| flat box| 1RL33| RA-20S| P-11 radar| P-14 radar| P-18 radar| P-35 radar| P-40 radar| TIGER| TRS-2100 Tiger| Lion System| JY-9 Radar| YLC-6 Radar| JLP-40 Radar| JLG-43 Radar | AN/TPS-43 | Ground Master 400| Protivnik-GE| AN/TPS-63| Giraffe radar| Commander SL| Rezonans NE3[36]