Egyptian Air Force

Egyptian Air Force

The Egyptian Air Force (EAF) (Arabic: القوات الجوية المصرية‎, Al-Qūwāt al-Gawwīyä al-Miṣrīyä), is the aviation branch of the Egyptian Armed Forces. The EAF is headed by an Air Marshal (Lieutenant General equivalent). Currently, the commander of the Egyptian Air Force is Air Marshal Reda Mahmoud Hafez Mohamed. The force's motto is 'Higher and higher for the sake of glory' (Arabic: إلى العلا في سبيل المجد‎, I‘la’ al-a‘là fī sabīl al-magd).

The Egyptian Army Air Service was formed in 1930, and became an independent air force in 1937. It had little involvement in the Second World War. From 1948 to 1973 it took part, with generally mediocre results, in four separate wars with Israel, as well as the quasi-War of Attrition. It also supported the Egyptian Army during the North Yemen Civil War and the Libyan-Egyptian War of 1977. Since 1977 it has seen virtually no combat, but has participated in numerous exercises, including Operation Bright Star from 1985.

Currently the EAF has over 465 combat aircraft and 214 armed helicopters. The Air Force's backbone are 240 F-16 Fighting Falcon fighters. The Egyptian Air Force is the 4th largest operator of F-16s in the world, after the United States, Israel, and Turkey.

Read more about Egyptian Air Force:  Aircraft, Aircraft Inventory, Munitions

Famous quotes containing the words egyptian, air and/or force:

    ...the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.
    Bible: Hebrew, Exodus 1:19.

    Egyptian midwives to Pharaoh.

    The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    When the excessively shy force themselves to be forward, they are frequently surprisingly unsubtle and overdirect and even rude: they have entered an extreme region beyond their normal personality, an area of social crime where gradations don’t count; unavailable to them are the instincts and taboos that booming extroverts, who know the territory of self-advancement far better, can rely on.
    Nicholson Baker (b. 1957)