Egypt

[karlos]

did my eyes deceive me or did a see m1 abrams tanks in use by the Egyptian army? have the yanks scored another own goal again a la Iran???

[John Tapsell]

Karlos,

Egypt has been using US equipment since the early 1980s - M113s, M60s and M1A1 - also use a range of US Aircraft types. I think the Abrams may be locally assembled but not sure about that.

There was a sea-change in Egyptian politics in the late 1970s and they moved away from the Soviet sphere of influence. They were the first Arab state to formally recognise the existence of Israel I believe and got more friendly with the West. You may also have noticed that some of the T-55s shown on the TV have been upgraded with 105mm L7 guns (a standard upgrade kit offered by Royal Ordnance).

This shift in political stance (recognising Israel primarily) is what got Sadat assassinated in 1980(?) and allowed Mubarrak to replace him. Egypt has been largely stable and pro-Western since then - supplying a large contingent of troops during Gulf War 1 in 1990-91.

Regards,John

[foxy]

Before Suez and Sadat, Britain supplied arms and vehicles to Egypt.
Some were used against there previous owners, 'so look out'.

I sore an M60 with bulldozer in one picture Karlos, so the old are still used with the new at this time;).

[fatfingers]

How do chaps,

The Egyptians have been producing the M1A1 since about 1992. As far as I know (which aint much!) they are not built to the same armour spec as the M1A1/A2 that is in use by the Yanks, as they don't have the Depleted Uranium armour.

Other users are...

Australia
Saudi Arabia
Kuwait
Iraq
Morocco also placed an order for 200 tanks in 2010.

When the British Army was looking to replace the Chally 1 the yanks offered up the M1A2 and the Germans the Leopard 2A4/A5 (which was the 'Generals choice' by all accounts!) Due to pressure from the 'political' element we went with the Chally 2, which is probably the hardest tank on the battlefield. Just read the accounts from Iraq in 2003, cant imagine how the Leopard would have fared in those circumstances!

Regards,

Steve