French Dassault Aviation has delivered the third batch of 3 single seat Dassault Rafale multi-role fighter jets to Egyptian Air Force.
The ferry flight from a air base in Southern France to Gebel El Basur Air Base near Cairo took 3 and half hours and were piloted by Egyptian pilots.
Egypt became the first export customer for Rafale in 2015, when it ordered 24 of these fourth generation fighter jets under a €5.2 billion (US $5.6 billion) deal, along with weapons and a DCNS FREMM multi-mission frigate.
The 24 aircraft will consist of 8 single seat variants and 16 twin seat variants which can also be used for pilot training.
The delivery brings Egyptian fleet to nine Rafale aircraft. The first and second batch consisting 3 twin seat aircraft each were delivered in Aug 2015 and Jan 2016 respectively. These aircraft were diverted from French Air Force order.
Dassault plans to deliver a total of 8 jets to Egypt in the 2017 and another 10 aircraft in 2018.
The twin engined Rafale is dubbed omnirole fighter by Dassault due to its multi-role capability and was designed to replace 7 types of aircraft operated by French Air force and Navy. It can perform missions including air defense, close air support, deep penetration strikes, reconnaissance, anti-ship strikes and nuclear deterrence.
In March, French Defense Ministry has awarded a contract to Dassault to begin development of the F4 Standard upgrade for Rafale featuring improved avionics and weapon capability.
With a Max. take-off weight of 24.5 t (54,000 lbs), the Rafale can carry a weapon payload of 9.5 t (21,000 lbs) on its 14 weapon stations.
Qatar and India has also ordered 24 and 36 Rafales respectively.
