Procurement (Egypt), Procurement

Assessment
Egypt is keen to develop and utilise its own defence industries, but is aware of the limitations. There is also the problem of compatibility, for example domestically produced Fahd APCs may not be used alongside M1A1 MBTs. Local assembly has also proved more expensive than off-the-shelf.The Egyptian Army's priority must be to ensure the full integration of recent material acquisitions within improved organisational structures and training regimes. Recent modernisation programmes and equipment purchases have stressed a need to aim for smaller, more mobile ground forces, relying on tactical advantage rather than size.The air force material improvements also illustrate this thinking. The navy, despite its critical role as guardian of the Suez Canal, has until recently, largely been neglected. Most funding in Egypt's current five year plan (the sixth) will go to follow-on support requirements and existing cash flow obligations relating to previous purchases. The following five year plan is likely to include provisions to acquire submarines, fast missile boats, advanced jet trainers, upgraded air defence and C4I systems.Egyptian defence equipment is overwhelmingly supplied from the US, either directly or from locally assembled kits, under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) programme that annually provides Egypt with some USD1.3 billion in subsidies, which was worth just over 25 per cent of the total defence spend in 2008. Spending under this programme is reserved for equipment of substantially US manufacture/design and subject to approval by the US Congress. The main criteria is that the equipment does not affect the regional balance of power

Army procurement
Main Battle TanksEgypt has built the US Army/General Dynamics M1A1 Abrams MBT under license since 1992 and has built up its current inventory in a series of incremental procurements. Egypt obtained US approval in 1984 to build a factory to produce new tanks. Between 1992 and 1999, 555 M1A1s were manufactured under six production increments. In 2000 a further 100 were ordered under a USD156 million contract with deliveries completed in 2003. Prior to final delivery, in November 2002, a further 100 tanks were ordered for USD141 million. The ninth increment was for 125 vehicles under a USD267 million contract awarded in 2004. The tenth, and latest, increment is for 125 M1A1 Abrams taking the number of Abrams from 880 to 1,005. General Dynamics was awarded a USD349 million contract to supply the kits which will be shipped to a facility outside Cairo for local manufacture. Delivery was due to begin in April 2009 with final deliveries expected in July 2011. When the programme began, Egypt had hoped to procure 1,500 M1A1 Abrams MBTs. The latest contract brings Egypt nearer to this figure with further procurement likely in the future. In July 2010, Jane's Defence Procurement estimated that around 950 Egyptian M1A1 Main Battle Tanks had been completed.In September 2003, Cairo requested 10,040 non-standard rounds of commercial 120 mm armour-piercing fin-stabilised discarding sabot-tracer kinetic energy tungsten advanced cartridges, fire-control solution, and programme management to support its fleet of M1A1 MBTs. The prime contractor is General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems

The complete article appears in the following publication:
Publication Title	Sentinel Security Assessment - North Africa
Publication date	Nov 15, 2010
Section	Procurement
Publication synopsis	Jane's Sentinel Country Risk Assessments provide you with in-depth, up-to-date and accurate data and analysis on the latest events and trends in political, security and economic affairs. They provide a comprehensive one-stop information source covering 190 states and 30 territories. Jane's worldwide intelligence network of over 120 expert contributors delivers incisive and impartial analysis to help you protect your economic, strategic and political interests. The new Security file allows prompt and reliable analysis on every country's security, primarily in the areas of terrorism and insurgency state stability international relations organised crime proliferation and procurement Political files provide overviews of the political system, political actors and parties, cabinet lists, civil society and internal history. External files detail all relevant bilateral and multilateral relations and history. Defence files offer profound analysis of, and information on, all services of a country's military, its size, capabilities, requirements, weaknesses, strengths and orders of battle.
North African countries	Algeria Chad Djibouti Egypt Eritrea Ethiopia Libya Mali Mauritania Morocco Somalia Sudan Tunisia Western Sahara Also includes new coverage of Somaliland.

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