Military industry of Egypt

The military industry of Egypt produces defense and security products including small arms, armored vehicles, and naval vessels for the Egyptian Armed Forces. Equipment is also exported. Egypt has co-production agreements with several countries, including the United States and France.^[1][2]

Near the end of World War II, Egypt came into possession of a large quantity and variety of armaments left behind by Nazi Germany,^[3] including large stockpiles of 8mm Mauser ammunition that had been manufactured by several Axis countries. The Egyptian government decided to manufacture a semi-automatic battle rifle and purchased the tooling and plans for the Swedish Automatgevär m/42 (Ag m/42) rifle, and re-engineered it to use the 8mm Mauser cartridges and a gas adjustment valve. The resulting Hakim Rifle was manufactured and fielded from the early 1950s until c. 1961. Egypt also briefly manufactured another re-engineered Ag ms/42, chambered for the 7.62×39mm Soviet cartridge, called the Rasheed Carbine. These guns were replaced in the 1960s by the Maadi AK-47, a licensed copy of the AK-47.

During the late 1950s, Egypt built the Jabal Hamzah ballistic missile test and launch facility to test-fire and to experiment with the domestically built Al Zafir and Al Kahir SRBMs.^[4]

Egypt was involved in supplying the Central Intelligence Agency with various weapons for Operation Cyclone during the Soviet–Afghan War. CIA Officer Gust Avrakotos set up a deal with Egyptian Defense Minister Abd al-Halim Abu Ghazala for Egypt to manufacture .303 ammunition for the hundreds of thousands of Lee–Enfield rifles that it supplied to the Afghan mujahideen through Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence. Congressman Charlie Wilson helped lower political barriers for the deals to go through.^[5]

Egypt has huge investments in weapons and military equipment, in addition to facilities to develop its military industry, and production covers all areas, including light infantry weapons,^[6] ammunition, tanks, and air missiles. As for the manufacture of licensed weapons, Egypt cooperates with a number of countries in the world in the field of military manufacturing, most notably the United States, Russia, China, South Africa, France, the United Kingdom, Finland, and others, to produce tank guns and howitzers,^[7] in addition to developing and producing anti-aircraft mortar shells, communications equipment, fire-fighting systems, and the production of military equipment and optics.^[8] Egypt has 16 state-owned factories for military and civil industries, and it has a monopoly right to produce and assemble ammunition in Egypt. Currently, the Egyptian government continues to cooperate with Spain and Germany since 50 years of the last century, and the first jet fighter aircraft was developed in Spain. Currently, Egypt depends on the United States and Russia to purchase the necessary weapons and equipment.^[9][10]

The goal of the local industry is to secure the actual Egyptian needs^[11] in times of peace or war for an army of up to 1.2 million fighters at the time of mobilization.

In the 1980s, Egypt was a producer of small and medium weapons, whether licensed or reproduced. In the 1990s, Egypt entered the heavy weapons industry, and after the year 2000, it moved to the stage of starting to design weapons systems. Now, Egypt designs small and medium weapons, produces heavy weapons, and develops them through self-production.^[12][13]

The volume of Egypt's military production reached 3.8 billion Egyptian pounds ($717 million) in the last fiscal year 2008, an increase of about 20% over the year 2007,^[14] according to the former Egyptian Minister of Military Production Sayed Meshaal.^[15] He said that military factories produced civilian goods with a value of 1.4 billion Egyptian pounds (about $246 million) in the fiscal year extending from the beginning of July 2007 to the same month of the year 2008. Meshaal added that sales of military factories products, which produce civilian and military goods, amounted to 1.489 billion Egyptian pounds ($280 million), an increase of 12% over last year.^[16] He explained that the number of workers in military factories rose to 40,000 workers, whose salaries amounted to 749 million Egyptian pounds ($141 million). He stressed the state's keenness not to privatize the military production sector as it is a safety valve for citizens and society.^[17]

Egyptian military factories currently export large quantities of waste recycling factory products, in addition to exporting irrigation systems and equipment to Sudan and Ethiopia. It is noteworthy that the Egyptian Ministry of Military Production also contributes to industries and construction of a civilian nature, especially the construction of automated bakeries and the construction of sewage networks and roads.^[18][19]

The Egyptian Ministry of Military Production is the ministry responsible for managing, developing and operating military factories in Egypt and is now headed by Major General Engineer Mohamed Salah Mostafa, who took over the ministry within the Ministry of Mostafa Madbouly on August 14, 2022.^[20]

The military industry in Egypt is organised across the following organisations:^[21]

• Egyptian Armaments Authority (EAA) which serves as the Egyptian military's acquisition arm for military hardware
• Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI) which owns and operates 23 defense manufacturing factories and the Egyptian Aerospace research center
• National Service Products Organization (NSPO) which owns several companies and supplies the Egyptian military and exports excess products
• Armed Forces Engineering Authority (AEA) which is responsible for mega projects

The Egypt Defence Expo (EDEX) is held in Cairo every two years.^[22]

• Egyptian Armed Forces:
  • National Service Products Organization
  • General Services Organization (Arabic: جهاز الخدمات العامة)
• Ministry of Defense (Egypt):
  • Marine Industries & Services Organization (Arabic: جهاز الصناعات والخدمات البحرية)
• Ministry of Military Production (Egypt)
• Military Technical College (Egypt)
• Arab Organization for Industrialization