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Soviets Reported Holding off Supplies of Newest Jet Fighter to Egypt

December 13, 1968
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The Daily Telegraph said today that Russia is not prepared to supply Egypt with its advanced, 1,800 mile-per-hour all-weather MIG-23 Jet fighters which might give the Egyptian Air Force superiority over the American F-4 Phantom jets to be sold to Israel. Western military analysts say the MIG-23 is too secret a weapon to risk the loss of one to Israel and that Egyptian pilots have yet to master the slower, less sophisticated MIG types already supplied to Egypt, the Telegraph reported. According to the newspaper, Soviet equipment supplied to Egypt since the June, 1967 war includes the bulk of Egypt’s subsonic MIG15s and MIG17s. But Egypt also has some 40 supersonic SU-7s which can be used for ground attack as well as 80 MIG-19 all-weather fighters and 110 MIG-21 interceptors, the Telegraph reported.

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