Egypt to gain Apache upgrade via FMS
US companies are to upgrade 43 Apache attack helicopters for Egypt in an FMS deal worth an estimated $2.3 billion, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced on 7 May.
Prime contractors are Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
The State Department approved the FMS to refurbish the AH-64D attack helicopters to the AH-64E Apache Guardian standard. Egypt will also receive 88 T700-GE-701D engines; 47 target acquisition and designation sights and pilot night vision sensors; 45 AAR-57 Common Missile Warning Systems; and 92 embedded GPS/INS units.
Other equipment in the FMS package includes laser detecting sets; transponders and IFF systems; radar altimeters; automatic direction finders; radios; radar warning sets; M299 Hellfire launchers; 2.75-inch, 19-tube rocket launchers; and M230 automatic guns and spare gun barrels.
The Apaches will be used by the Egyptian military for counter-terrorism operations in the Sinai Peninsula. In November 2018, the State Department approved the sale of 10 new AH-64Es to Egypt, in order ‘to address US-Egyptian interest in countering terrorist activities emanating from the Sinai Peninsula that undermine regional stability’.
However, sales of Apache to Egypt have attracted political opposition in Washington DC in the past, over concerns that the helicopters would be used against unarmed protestors.
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