Egypt looks to bolster heavy-lift helo capability with Chinook

Egypt has placed an FMS request with the US to acquire 23 CH-47F Chinook helicopters and associated equipment from Boeing for an estimated $2.6 billion.

The US State Department announced on 26 May that it has approved the potential sale and the Defense Security Cooperation Agency has notified Congress accordingly.

In addition to the helicopters themselves, Egypt aims to acquire 56 T-55-GA-714A turboshaft engines from Honeywell; 52 inertial navigation systems with embedded GPS; 75 7.62mm M240 machine guns made by FN Herstal; and extended-range fuel systems.

Sensor systems include 29 AN/AAR-57 Common Missile Warning System (CMWS) units from BAE Systems plus classified software; AN/APR-39 radar warning receivers from Northrop Grumman; AN/AVR-2B laser detector sets and AN/ARN-147 landing aid receivers from Collins Aerospace; and AN/AVS-6 NVGs from L3Harris.

HF radios, radar altimeters and tactical air navigation units from Collins Aerospace are also included in the FMS request.

Egypt remains an active market for US-made defence equipment and the latest FMS announcement came less than a week after Cairo requested TOW 2A missiles.

It also comes as no surprise that Egypt has placed an FMS request for the CH-47F in particular. In July 2020, for example, Shephard reported that Boeing had picked out the North African country as a target market for the aircraft.

The company already supplies the Egyptian Air Force with the AH-64D Apache Longbow and it is set to upgrade 25 of these aircraft to the AH-64E Apache Guardian standard.