{"id":26662101,"date":"2026-10-05T10:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T08:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/operation-badr-1973-egyptian-air-force-opening-air-strike-6-october\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T10:45:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T08:45:57","slug":"operation-badr-1973-egyptian-air-force-opening-air-strike-6-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/operation-badr-1973-egyptian-air-force-opening-air-strike-6-october\/","title":{"rendered":"Operation Badr: Egypt&#8217;s 200-Jet Opening Strike of the 1973 War"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\n\n<style>\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid 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More than 200 of them crossed the canal at low level and fanned out across the Sinai, heading for Israeli airfields, missile batteries, radars and command posts. Five minutes later, nearly 2,000 Egyptian guns opened fire.<\/p>\n<p>This was the opening blow of Operation Badr, Egypt's plan to cross the canal and break the Bar Lev Line. Fifty-three years later, the air strike that started it remains one of the most celebrated, and most argued about, moments in Egyptian military history.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"background:#f4f6f9;border:1px solid #e2e7ee;padding:18px 22px;margin:22px 0 26px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:700;color:#0d1117\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:18px\"><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Date and time:<\/strong> 6 October 1973, 14:00 Cairo time<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Force:<\/strong> More than 200 Egyptian Air Force aircraft<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Types:<\/strong> MiG-21, MiG-17 and Su-7, plus Tu-16 bombers firing Kelt missiles<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Targets:<\/strong> Three airbases, Hawk SAM batteries, three command centres, artillery, radars and the Umm Khashib electronic centre<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Losses:<\/strong> Five aircraft initially, rising to about ten by the end of the day; one source gives 18<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Air force commander:<\/strong> Hosni Mubarak, later President of Egypt<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The surprise<\/h2>\n<p>Egypt and Syria had planned the attack in great secrecy, and the timing was chosen to catch Israel off guard. Israeli intelligence only became convinced that war was coming in the early hours of 6 October. Prime Minister Golda Meir decided against a pre-emptive air strike, partly so that Israel could not be blamed for starting the war. The <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/air-forces\/israeli-air-force\/\">Israeli Air Force<\/a> was on alert, but it would not strike first.<\/p>\n<p>The Egyptian plan rested on two pillars. On the ground, infantry with portable anti-tank missiles and engineers with high-pressure water cannons would cross the canal and breach the sand ramparts of the Bar Lev Line. In the air, the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/air-forces\/egyptian-air-force\/\">Egyptian Air Force<\/a> would hit the Israeli infrastructure in Sinai hard enough to blunt any immediate response, and then retire behind a dense umbrella of surface-to-air missiles on the west bank.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/82-lmGuTl_I\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n<p style=\"font-size:14px;color:#666;font-style:italic\">Kings and Generals' documentary on the Sinai front of the 1973 war, including the opening Egyptian air and artillery strikes.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Two hundred jets at low level<\/h2>\n<p>At 14:00, the strike went in. <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/mig-21-fishbed\/\">MiG-21s<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/mig-17-fresco\/\">MiG-17s<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/su-7-fitter\/\">Su-7<\/a> fighter-bombers flew low across the canal towards their targets. According to the account on Wikipedia, which draws on Egyptian and Western histories, they hit three airbases, Hawk surface-to-air missile batteries, three command centres, artillery positions, several radar stations and the Israeli electronic warfare and intelligence centre at Umm Khashib.<\/p>\n<p>Egypt's <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/tu-16-badger\/\">Tu-16<\/a> bombers joined in from a distance. They fired more than a dozen AS-5 Kelt air-to-surface missiles at targets in Sinai. Several were shot down, but at least five reached their targets, including two anti-radiation versions that knocked out Israeli radars.<\/p>\n<p>The claimed results were impressive. Bir Gifgafa and Bir Thamada air bases were reported out of action for 48 hours, Ras Nasrani and Bir Hasanah were damaged, and around ten Hawk batteries were said to have been destroyed. At 14:05, nearly 2,000 artillery pieces began a 53-minute bombardment of the Bar Lev Line, one of the largest artillery preparations in history.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/egyptian-su-7-hatzerim-shot-down-6-october-1973.jpg\" alt=\"Tail of a former Egyptian Air Force Sukhoi Su-7 at the Israeli Air Force Museum in Hatzerim\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The tail of a former Egyptian Air Force Su-7 at the Israeli Air Force Museum in Hatzerim. According to its Wikimedia Commons description, this aircraft was shot down by Israeli 20mm anti-aircraft fire on 6 October 1973 while attacking Umm Khashib. Photo: Oren Rozen \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The price<\/h2>\n<p>The strike was not free. Egypt lost five aircraft in the initial wave, a figure that rose to around ten by the end of the day. One source puts the losses at 18 and says they were the reason a planned second strike was cancelled. Among the pilots who did not come back was Flight Lieutenant Atef Sadat, the 25-year-old younger half-brother of President Anwar Sadat. He was flying a Su-7 and was shot down attacking the Israeli airfield at Meliz in Sinai. His body was returned to Egypt in March 1974.<\/p>\n<p>There is a grim symmetry in the date. Exactly eight years later, on 6 October 1981, Anwar Sadat was assassinated while watching a military parade marking the anniversary of the war.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/icxos9sVrYY\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n<p style=\"font-size:14px;color:#666;font-style:italic\">Al Jazeera English examines how both Egypt and Israel came to claim victory in the October 1973 war.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Hero or myth?<\/h2>\n<p>The commander of the Egyptian Air Force in 1973 was Hosni Mubarak. The opening strike made him a national hero, he was promoted to Air Chief Marshal, and within two years he was Vice President. He became President after Sadat's assassination and ruled Egypt for almost 30 years. In Egypt, the \"first air strike\" became part of his official legend, with claims that the pilots hit around 90 per cent of their targets.<\/p>\n<p>Not everyone agrees. The influential Egyptian journalist Mohamed Hassanein Heikal took a much cooler view of the air force's contribution to the war.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;a mostly psychological role in the war, providing an inspirational sight for the Egyptian ground troops&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Mohamed Hassanein Heikal<\/strong> &mdash; Egyptian journalist and former editor of Al-Ahram, on the Egyptian Air Force in the 1973 war, as cited on Wikipedia<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n<p>Shahdan El-Shazly, the daughter of Egypt's wartime chief of staff Saad el-Shazly, went further and accused Mubarak of exaggerating his role and altering documents and photographs to take credit for the early success. The truth probably sits somewhere in between. The strike did not cripple the Israeli Air Force, which was flying in strength within hours. But it hit Sinai's radars and defences at the decisive moment, and the sight of Egyptian jets heading east gave the soldiers waiting on the canal bank an enormous lift.<\/p>\n<p>Either way, the strike set the tone for what followed: an Egyptian army that, for the first few days at least, kept the initiative.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/bar-lev-line-fort-suez-canal.jpg\" alt=\"A trench and bunker of the Israeli Bar Lev Line along the Suez Canal\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A trench and bunker of the Bar Lev Line, the Israeli fortifications along the Suez Canal that Operation Badr was designed to break. Photo: Wikimedia Commons (public domain).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">What came next<\/h2>\n<p>Within hours, Egyptian troops were across the canal. By the next morning, bridges were in place and armour was rolling into Sinai. The Israeli Air Force, attacking into the dense SAM umbrella, took heavy losses in the first days of the war. The tide turned later in October, with the Israeli crossing of the canal and the encirclement of the Egyptian Third Army. But Egypt had made its point, and the war set in motion the diplomacy that led to the Camp David Accords and the return of Sinai.<\/p>\n<p>For the men who flew that afternoon, the war began with a low-level dash across a canal that had been a wall for six years. Some of them did not come back. All of them flew into history.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XRqGovKp278\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n<p style=\"font-size:14px;color:#666;font-style:italic\">AP Archive footage of Egyptian forces crossing the Suez Canal in October 1973.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sources: Wikipedia (Operation Badr (1973), Hosni Mubarak, Atef Sadat, Yom Kippur War), Kings and Generals, AP Archive, Al Jazeera English<\/em><\/p>\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\n\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\n\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\n\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\n\n\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>What was Operation Badr in 1973?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Operation Badr was the Egyptian military operation that opened the October 1973 war, known in Israel as the Yom Kippur War. Launched on 6 October 1973, it combined a massive air strike, a huge artillery barrage and a crossing of the Suez Canal to break through Israel's Bar Lev Line in Sinai.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How many aircraft took part in the Egyptian air strike on 6 October 1973?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">More than 200 Egyptian Air Force aircraft took part in the opening strike at 14:00 Cairo time on 6 October 1973. They were mainly MiG-21s, MiG-17s and Su-7s, supported by Tu-16 bombers that fired AS-5 Kelt missiles at targets in Sinai.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What did the Egyptian opening air strike hit?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The strike targeted three Israeli airbases in Sinai, Hawk surface-to-air missile batteries, three command centres, artillery positions, radar stations and the electronic warfare centre at Umm Khashib. Bir Gifgafa and Bir Thamada air bases were reported out of action for 48 hours.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How many aircraft did Egypt lose in the first air strike?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Egypt lost five aircraft in the first wave on 6 October 1973, and about ten by the end of the day, according to the figures cited on Wikipedia. One source puts the total at 18 and says the losses led Egypt to cancel a planned second strike.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Who commanded the Egyptian Air Force in 1973?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Hosni Mubarak commanded the Egyptian Air Force from 1972 to 1975. The opening air strike of the 1973 war made him a national hero and he was promoted to Air Chief Marshal. He later became Vice President and, after Anwar Sadat's assassination in 1981, President of Egypt.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Who was Atef Sadat?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Atef Sadat was an Egyptian Air Force flight lieutenant and the younger half-brother of President Anwar Sadat. Flying a Su-7, he was shot down and killed on 6 October 1973 while attacking the Israeli airfield at Meliz in Sinai during the opening air strike.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was Operation Badr in 1973?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Operation Badr was the Egyptian military operation that opened the October 1973 war, known in Israel as the Yom Kippur War. 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Flying a Su-7, he was shot down and killed on 6 October 1973 while attacking the Israeli airfield at Meliz in Sinai during the opening air strike.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/ofira-air-battle-1973-two-f-4e-phantoms-28-migs-sharm-el-sheikh\/\">Ofira Air Battle 1973: Two Israeli Phantoms Against 28 MiGs<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/air-battle-of-mansoura-1973-egypt-mig-21-phantoms\/\">Air Battle of Mansoura 1973: Egypt's 53-Minute MiG-21 Fight<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/operation-tagar-dugman-5-1973-israeli-air-force-sam-golan-suez\/\">Operation Tagar and Dugman 5: Israel's Worst Day Against the SAMs<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Share this story At two o&#8217;clock in the afternoon on 6 October 1973, Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, the sky over the Suez Canal filled with Egyptian jets. More than 200 of them crossed the canal at low level and fanned out across the Sinai, heading for Israeli airfields, missile batteries, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":26661029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26662101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Operation Badr 1973: Egypt&#039;s Opening Air Strike | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On 6 October 1973 more than 200 Egyptian jets opened Operation Badr. 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