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 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.

Foundation

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.

World War II

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.

1948 Arab-Israeli war

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.

Suez Crisis

Anti-aircraft guns were one of the Egyptian military strengths of World War II. 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.

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.

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. 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. 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.

Early Warning Network

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.

SAM Wall

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.

October 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.

After the October war

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. 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.

Commanders of the Egyptian Air Defence Force

Weaponry and equipment

The EADF is undergoing extensive modernization with budgetary constraints being the only hindrance. Currently, it is believed to possess the following weaponry:

Regional/strategic perimeter-level SAM

]] (Morning Bird) (reverse-engineered and modernized SA-2 Guideline S-75 Dvina missile: 40 batteries (6 single units per Battery, 2 reloads each) (medium/high-altitude, long-range SAM)

Army corps and division-level SAM

Brigade- and battalion-level SAM

Air Defence

Future of air defence

Egyptian Air Defence Radars

Beret

Ranks