Typhoon jets currently deployed as part of 903 Expeditionary Air Wing joined Egyptian Air Force F-16s during Exercise BRIGHT STAR.

The RAF say that this was the first time since 2001 that the RAF have flown with the Egyptian Air Force. The Typhoons were also joined on the exercise by F-16s from the Greek Air Force and US Air Force F-15s and F-16s together with C-130 Hercules and B-52s.

Wing Commander ‘Dutch’ Holland, Commanding Officer 903 Expeditionary Air Wing, was quoted as saying:

“Exercises such as Ex BRIGHT STAR 21 are vital as we develop and maintain interoperability with our coalition partners if the RAF is to be truly effective on operations throughout the Middle East.  Flying with other air forces requires extensive planning and the contributions of 903 Expeditionary Air Wing personnel have ensured that the exercise was safely and successfully completed.”

Exercise BRIGHT STAR is hosted in Egypt every two years and is run in cooperation with the United States Air Force.  This iteration took place in the North West of Egypt with the aim to test UK and partner forces interoperability.  The exercise was first held in 1980 to broker peace between Egypt and Israel, the most recent exercise before this year was held in 2018 as the 2020 exercise was cancelled due to COVID-19.

You can read more on this from the RAF here.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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50 COMMENTS

  2. Interesting as Britain doesn’t seem to have had much in the way of any military cooperation with Egypt for a long time.

    May be a complete coincidence but there was recently a rumour of them being interested in purchasing a few Typhoon’s (probably like Qatar to operate multiple fast-jet fleets as a means of gaining diplomatic/economic leverage) so perhaps this happening to give them a close up view of it in action!

  4. Egypt’s got a huge millitary and getting stronger. And is the only Arab state with spy Satelites. And they have far more fast jets than UK, and Army Far bigger, how capable are the soldiers though?? 
    And Egypt was part of the British Empire, but how come they don’t blame everything that’s wrong with them on us British like INDIANs do??

    • “”Egypt’s got a huge and getting stronger. “”

      So, I’m a young sapper posted to a field squadron in Chatham whose main task is to support the Royal school of Military Engineering (RSME) with its courses , One such course is the young Officers course (YO) where newly minted officers tip up in which to learn the ins and outs of combat engineering , the course also attracts candidates from abroad.

      One such course and we had a candidate from Egypt. Unfortunately for me, he is also called farouk. He tips up the first week as a one badge wonder, goes away the first weekend and comes back a captain. Apparently he didn’t want to be the same as everybody else and so got the embassy to promote him. Problem there for him was with his new rank came a lot of responsibility.(Well with us anyway)  Anyway final exercise spent on Salisbury plain. Last night they harbour up in a pre-prepared position, where their trenches had already been dug. Thankfully I was playing enemy, so didn’t have to live with them. So first thing Friday morning , red barrage (200 PE charges based on 10 lines of 10 where the top charge is on an electric det (So we know its working) and the rest are on different sizes of fuzee) 

      During the barrage we blatt off lots of rounds in their direction, complete with lots of smoke. At the end, they tab 5 miles to end ex wearing noddy suits and respirators So final harbour area and somebody askes ‘Farouk’ where his weapon is. He explains that he buried it during the red arty barrage and not to worry as he will buy a new one when we get back. Err no, and the entire course is made to tab back the 5 miles in which to recover said missing weapon. That’s all I needed to see of the Egyptians . Don’t even get me started on the Syrians and Saudis. 

        • As a child I hated it, (I wanted an English name) but as I got older, it grew on me, simply as it was different,( In Germany when I was asked my name, I would always receive a funny look as it is very similar to verruckt which means crazy.) But its not a common name and thank god I’m not called ‘Mohammed’

          • Interesting I always wondered what the story behind your name here. Good to know it’s truly your own.

          • Good on you mate, using your real name.

            Nought wrong with it either. You might be “crazy”, but at least your not mistaken for a woman by the ignorant on a regular basis!

        • Edd B wrote:
          “”He buried it ””

          He apparently cut the guide lines of the IPK(Individual Protection Kit) which had been used to cover half a trench and the earth on top of it covered up the bottom of that side and the weapon.

      • Yeah, online Indians drive me mad, saying everuthing we buy is with Indian Money or that our Wealth today is because of India… we almost went bankrupt after ww2 and we built our wealth back up I explain but nope.. and we give india Hundreds of millions in Aid yearly. And India would be an even bigger dump today without British systems, laws, structure ect.. anyways off topic ooops…

        • I’ve visited India a number of times and understand you. I’ve never had any anti UK feeling whilst in India but online you get the the usual UK evil drivel – which is usually based on nothing more than what they’ve been told or read. You’ve got as much chance of discussing historical facts with them on the subject as with the average Guardian reader – facts are sacred to them until they show they’re spouting nonsense – at which time they abuse you as a non-woke idiot.
          Truth be told India under the British wasn’t perfect but it improved markedly (ignore the oft quoted nonsense about India proportion of world GDP declining under British rule). Britain bought modernity to India – not easily or evenly but India benefitted from it immensely even if at times painfully.
          A book on it is ‘ British India……’ by Kartar Lalvani. Check it out thru the library system.

          • Yeah might read that mate. What gets me about india though is there’s literally tens of millions of starving homeless children with no parents on the streets but India will build pointless aircraft carriers and send rovers to Mars (or try) and buy more jets to go with the 500 odd they already have that they will prob only have for show and will never realy use properly!

            Allot of what India does is for show to try pretend it’s a proper serious country and is a world power but it’s not it’s just a regional power. I just answered my query I think. But Indians piss me off, they are also pretty dam racist, far more than europeans. Atleast UK. is still a World power just,,

          • For me India and many other countries buy weapon systems Aircraft,ships Tanks ,Artillery ECT like toys.But what gets me is there have kids staving on the streets .And reley on the West for Aid.

          • Got some real mixed views on this. Agree that in case of India the West should stop providing aid at the national level However in terms of the kit and military capabilities they are developing they do have some serious border issues to the North West and to the North East as well as having a massive marine zone to police.

            In terms of the British legacy in India yes there will be some positive remnants remaining such as railways etc but you can’t forget those railway’s were built to allow the occupying forces, the East India Company and the administration etc to move quickly across the country and to provide efficient routes by which the wealth and resources of India could be extracted and exported.

            It can be argued that India resolved one of the more unfortunate British legacies created when it left the sub continent, the creation of Pakistan split between East (now Bangladesh) and West. The West Pakistanis were responsible for the genocide of 4million Bangladeshi during the 1971 civil war before they stupidly attacked some Indian airbases as a pre-emptive strike. The Indians quickly routed the Pakistan forces in the East before the US 7th Fleet could arrive to lend support to the Pakistanis. My experience when in the sub continent was that many older Indians and Bangladeshis have a quiet mistrust of the West in general, not just Britain

            On positive side I did have the pleasure of meeting Commodore Abdul Chowdhury several times. His exploits during that conflict are worth a google

            https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thedailystar.net/in-focus/news/operation-jackpot-brought-us-three-steps-closer-liberation-2070845%3famp

          • The railways did indeed have a military function but they also facilitated trade ( both export and imports – helping local businesses) and Indians used them in droves (local passengers were factored in most lines planning). But there was so much more to British rule – education, land ownership (i will try and find it but i gather pre-british India was fuedal and some provinces had only a few dozen land owners in total!). Then there is defence – the EIC is often quoted for its rapacity but the real pillaging was happening on the other side of the country (NW inc Delhi) which was invaded umpteen times by the Afghans and Persians when the British got there it was a wreck but they stopped the invasions and gave rule of law. As for partition many Indians blame UK which is untrue ( as they didn’t want it) that can be put down to the Muslim League ( as can the Kashmir situation due to their invasion during partition).

          • A photo from 2007….

            Lol…always others are the baddies ….and what what did the Romans ever do for us…nice aqueducts and sanitation but still an occupying force imposing it’s will.

            Suspect we will just need to agree to disagree. However, here in the 21st century when most on this site voice distrust of the EU and joy at separation the endeavours of the British Empire to effectively force create a large integrated unified trading block, an 18th / 19th century South Asian EU if you will, across religious and ethnic divisions are celebrated. Makes me smile.

            Have a great weekend 😀

          • @Reaper @Andrew D be careful about throwing stones in Glass houses, the UK is also a mess with plenty of poverty, foodbanks and starving children to go around. We’ve also got plenty of homeless people of all ages up and down the country and millions living in substandard accomodation paying exorbitant sums to landlords. Yet we still spend billions on failed projects and funnel huge sums of public money into the pockets of political donors.

            I shouldn’t need to remind anyone that many of the families or individuals struggling are also part of our own community.

          • And for those same reasons is why China is still classed as a regional power, and not a global power. Despite the on paper numbers.

          • Whilst racism in any form or any direction is abhorrent, what younger people from the sub-continent often fail to understand is that without the British presence today’s India would not exist. The only common language on the sub-continent is English. Before there were a myriad of small states separated and segregated by an equal myriad of different languages & dialects. The two things that bound the sub-continent together were the introduction of a common language, English, and the building of the railways, both results of the British presence. we may have got many things wrong but Britain built the foundations of modern India.

    • No Indians I know blame Britain for any ills in their own country. Also since when has more equalled better? If that was the case the Russians would have rolled right over Europe in the 50s.

    • It’s fairly complicated but Egypt was never really part of the Empire, it was a breakaway province of the Ottoman Empire under British Protection, then during WWI briefly occupied, then an independent Kingdom with heavy UK support and military presence. But never directly ruled by Britain.

    • They did for a long time but when their relations with Russia went sour like for instance Vietnam often old ‘enemies’ become friends of convenience. To be fair Egypt is a bit like India and trying to keep as wide a range of friends as possible for strategic reasons and to try to keep at least some objectivity and influence in relations in the Middle East and regarding Israel in particular. I guess. considering it’s location at the crossroads and with a nuclear neighbour who is the sworn enemy of another potentially nuclear armed enemy too close for comfort and another in Turkey across the med and playing games on its other. border and internal extremists and agents looking to cause havoc who can blame them for wanting to keep all options open.

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