Egypt was to receive three Rafale fighters from France on Thursday, a French embassy official said, six months after Paris delivered the first three of a consignment of 24 of the warplanes.

The delivery is part of a 5.2 billion-euro ($5.6 billion) deal Cairo signed with Paris in February 2015 to purchase 24 Rafale multi-role combat jets, a frigate and missiles.

The sale of Rafales to Egypt was the first such export order for French manufacturer Dassault Aviation.

In July, France also delivered a 6,000-tonne multi-mission frigate to Cairo as Egypt seeks to boost its military capability in the face of instability in Libya and a jihadist insurgency in its Sinai Peninsula.

In October, the two countries signed another contract to buy two French Mistral warships, whose sale to Russia was cancelled by Paris because of the Ukraine crisis.

Egyptian F-16 crashes, crew killed: army
Cairo (AFP) Jan 28, 2016 - An Egyptian F-16 fighter jet has crashed with the loss of its crew during a military exercise, the army announced late on Wednesday night.

"An F-16 aircraft has crashed during an exercise, killing the crew," the army said in a statement, which did not give the location of the incident.

Egypt has one of the region's most powerful and well-equipped militaries and was boosted by recent deliveries of F-16 warplanes by Washington and Rafale fighter jets from France.

The F-16 is manufactured by Lockheed Martin and is used by about 20 countries.