Egypt to manufacture first fighter, drone plane: MENA

CAIRO, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Egypt is set to produce its first fighter and drone "in cooperation with a foreign side", official MENA news agency reported on Saturday.

"Talks and negotiations are underway about a project to produce Egypt's first fighter and drone plane," MENA quoted Lt. General Hamdy Waheba, Chairman of Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI), Egypt's state-owned company specialized in producing civilian goods as well as military products.

The official did not name the foreign party which will take a hand at the process.

"Local production of the aircraft will meet the demand of the Egyptian Armed Forces, as it will be sold at a very competitive price," Waheba added.

The AOI was established in 1975 with the aim of building an advanced technology industrial base.

Egypt is one the major Arab countries dependent on importing military fighters from the United States and Russia.

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Green Light for Production of Lockheed Martin F-16s for Egypt

Lockheed Martin Awarded $213 Million for 20 New F-16C/Ds in FMS

10:01 GMT, March 4, 2010 defpro.com | Yesterday, Lockheed Martin announced that the US government has given the go-ahead for production of 20 new F-16 fighter aircraft to be delivered to the Egypt Air Force. As part of a foreign military sale (FMS) contract valued at $213 million (€156 million), Lockheed Martin will build 16 F-16C and four F-16D fighter aircraft in the advanced Block 52 configuration which are scheduled to be delivered to Egypt by 2013.

In light of this significant contract, John Larson, Vice President Lockheed Martin F-16 programmes, said: “This is a great day for Lockheed Martin and a testament to the enduring partnership and commitment we have made to the government of Egypt. We remain committed to providing our customer with a proven, advanced 4th Generation multi-role fighter.”

As defpro.com reported in October 2009, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) informed the US Congress of a possible FMS to Egypt of 24 F-16s, including associated weapons and equipment (see: http://www.defpro.com/news/details/10560/). According to the DSCA, the announced FMS contract had an estimated total value of $3.2 billion.


A strong military customer of the US

Being in the process of modernising its aircraft fleet and extending its strike capabilities, the new Egyptian F-16s will complement a current fleet of 216 fighters of this aircraft type and replace some of its older aircraft. The F-16s are the most state-of-the-art asset in the Egyptian Air Force’s inventory. Egypt was the first Arab country to purchase F-16s through a FMS programme called ‘Peace Vector’. Since the initial purchase of 42 aircraft in 1980, Egypt has repeatedly received additional F-16s in the A, B, C and D configurations, some of which have been licence-manufactured by TUSAS, now Turkish Aircraft Industries (TAI).

An earlier report, published at defpro.com, stated that the request by the Egyptian government for additional F-16s had already been accepted by the US in June 2009 (see http://www.defpro.com/news/details/8328/). According to the report, this long-standing request for state-of-the-art military equipment, including F-16s, Apache helicopters, mobile air defence systems and JDAM bombs, had been denied repeatedly by the Bush administration due to Egypt's record on human rights and democracy.

In December 2009, the DSCA announced a number of possible FMS contracts with Egypt worth some $1.19 billion (€830.94 million). The requests by the Egyptian government comprised the sale of Hellfire II air-to-surface missiles, Harpoon Block II anti-ship missiles, upgrade kits for its General Electric F-110-GE-100 aircraft engines powering the Egyptian F-16s, as well as Fast Missile Crafts (FMC).

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Egypt agrees to buy up to 24 US F-16 fighters

Egypt agrees to buy up to 24 US F-16 fighters
Wed, Dec 30 01:39 AM

Egypt clinched a deal with the U.S government last week to buy 20 advanced Lockheed Martin Corp F-16C/D fighter aircraft valued at $1.6 billion, the U.S. Defense Department said Tuesday.

The first of the new batch, known as block 50/52, are expected to be delivered in early 2012, a spokesman for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said.

The Pentagon told Congress in October that Egypt was seeking as many as 24 F-16C/D block 50/52 models. It said at the time the deal could be worth $3.2 billion, including base construction, support equipment and other hardware and services.

The U.S.-Egyptian agreement was signed Dec. 23 and covered strictly the F-16s, associated equipment and logistical support, said Paul Ebner, the spokesman.

The rest of the possible arms package for Egypt was still subject to negotiations, he said.

The Egyptian embassy did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the reason for buying 20 F-16s rather than the 24 Cairo originally had requested.

George Standridge, Lockheed Aeronautics' vice president for business development, said in a telephone interview that Lockheed now awaits a U.S. government contract for the addition to Egypt's existing F-16 fleet.

Former President George W. Bush's administration is widely reported to have withheld updated F-16s and certain other advanced weapons because of Egypt's human rights record and democracy issues, as well as out of concern for maintaining Israel's qualitative military edge.

Egypt has been flying the F-16 since 1982. It has received 220 of them, after decades of chiefly using military hardware built by the former Soviet Union.

The new agreement marks the 53rd time an F-16 customer has returned for a new batch, said Joe Stout, a Lockheed spokesman.

Last week, Lockheed was awarded an $841.8 million contract to continue building 24 new F-16C/D Block 52 fighters for Morocco, the 25th nation to buy the F-16, the world's most widely flown fighter.

The administration of President Barack Obama told Congress in October that the F-16 sale would greatly enhance Egypt's "interoperability" with U.S. forces.

This would make it a more valuable partner in the Middle East as well as support Egypt's own self-defense needs, the security cooperation agency said.