"the Egyptian Airforce could hit the Renaissance Dam with extended fuel tanks mounted on fighter jets like Rafael or F-16 block 52 but there are huge risks & limitations to such an air strike. First of all, the Ethiopians generals take the military threat posed by the Egyptian army very seriously specially after ex-president Morsi discussed on live TV the military option with his advisers. It's no secret that the dam site is completely surrounded by anti aircraft batteriesready for any attacking fighter jets. That would mean the Egyptian jets would have to take out these batteries first before hitting the dam and the time gap between the 2 air strikes (1st strike to take out the batteries, 2nd to take out the dam) should be really minimal i.e, only minutes. Accurate "military" Satellite images are required to locate these batteries a day or two before the planned strike, which Egypt lacks. Asking a foreign country to supply such images would risk exposing the whole operation. If the airforce decides to attack the dam directly without taking out the air batteries that protect the dam, it would be suicidal for the Egyptian pilots and many aircrafts would be brought down by anti aircraft missiles. We have to factor in the economic situation also which is extremely important. The Egyptian economy has been taking major blows manifested in the dwindling income of the Suez canaldespite massive investment "8 billion dollars" and the rise of the Dollar against the Egyptian Pound. Simply put, Egypt is BROKE and can not afford to go to war and risk sanctions imposed by the EU/US on already a declining economy which basically survives on foreign aid from the Gulf states. If the economy collapses, there would be huge demonstrations and possibly a 3rd revolution. The Ethiopian governmentknows all of that very well and that's why they declined many requests to reduce the size of the dam or to make any modifications to the original design of the dam. But, on the other hand, if the dam construction is completed and the water flow to Egypt is significantly reduced -"which depends on how fast Ethiopia wants to fill up the huge artificial lake"- the average Egyptian will start to feel the pressure of water scarcity and rising prices of water, not to mention the possible drought of thousands of hectares of fertile land. That would eventually lead to riots on the streets and also a possible 3rd revolution. Either way, the current Egyptian government is in a very bad situation on the domestic and the foreign fronts. If it strikes the dam, they lose foreign "EU/US" diplomatic/financial support which it desperately needs and if it lets the dam with its current design be completed, it'll pay a very heavy price at home and risks being overthrown by the people. One thing for sure, no one wants to be in its situation."
This sums it up.