Egyptian Army

The Egyptian Army is the largest service branch within the Egyptian military establishment and holds power in the current Egyptian government. It is estimated to number around 468,000, in addition to 480,000 reservists for a total of 948,000 strong.^[2] The modern army was created in the 1830s, and during the twentieth century has fought four wars with Israel (in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973). Furthermore, in 1991 Egyptian units took part in Operation Desert Storm, the liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi occupation.

Contents [hide] 1 History 1.1 Ottoman and post Ottoman 1.2 Nasser 1.3 Sadat and Mubarak 2 Weapons inventory 3 See also 4 References 5 Further reading

The modern Egyptian army was formed in the 1830s by Muhammad Ali of Egypt. He sought to split Egypt away from the Ottoman Empire, and to do this he brought in European weapons and expertise and built an army that defeated the Sultan andseized control over Egypt, Syria, and parts of Arabia.^[3] The Egyptian Army was involved in the following wars during the Muhammad Ali Dynasty:

• The Greek War of Independence
• The 1831 Egyptian-Ottoman War
• The First Turko-Egyptian War
• The Second Turko-Egyptian War
• The Syrian War

But the Europeans intervened on the Sultan's behalf, and following their intercession the Egyptian army languished until Britain took control of Egypt in the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War. Egypt was involved in the long-running 1881-99 Mahdist War in the Sudan.

In 1946, the British officers were ousted and Egyptians took full control.^[4] The Free Officers Movement of the Army, masterminded by Nasser seized power from KingFarouk of Egypt in the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. During the Cold War, the army actively fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the 1956 Suez Crisis, the North Yemen Civil War from 1962 to 1967, the 1967 Six Day War, the 1969-1970 War of Attrition, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and the 1977 Libyan–Egyptian War.

Within three months of sending troops to Yemen in 1962, Nasser realized that this would require a larger commitment than anticipated. By early 1963, he would begin a four-year quest to extricate Egyptian forces from Yemen, using an unsuccessful face-saving mechanism, only to find himself committing more troops. A little less than 5,000 troops were sent in October 1962. Two months later, Egypt had 15,000 regular troops deployed. By late 1963, the number was increased to 36,000; and in late 1964, the number rose to 50,000 Egyptian troops in Yemen. Late 1965 represented the high-water mark of Egyptian troop commitment in Yemen at 55,000 troops, which were broken into 13 infantry regiments of one artillery division, one tank division and several Special Forces as well as paratroop regiments. All the Egyptian field commanders complained of a total lack of topographical maps causing a real problem in the first months of the war.

Before the June 1967 War, the army divided its personnel into four regional commands (Suez, Sinai, Nile Delta, and Nile Valley up to the Sudan).^[5] The remainder of Egypt's territory, over 75%, was the sole responsibility of the Frontier Corps. After the 1967 debacle, the army was reorganized into two field armies, the Second Army and the Third Army, both of which were stationed in the eastern part of the country.

It has been argued that only the relatively good performance of the Egyptian Army in the 1973 war, especially in the Suez Crossing and in theBattle of Suez, which allowed the Egyptians to claim a level of victory and take part in the 1977 Camp David Accords without losing face. Yet despite the impressive crossing of the Suez Canal (Operation Badr), The army had an estimated strength of 320,000 in 1989. About 180,000 of these were conscripts.^[6] Beyond the Second Army and Third Army in the east, most of the remaining troops were stationed in the Nile Delta region, around the upper Nile, and along the Libyan border. These troops were organized into eight military districts. Commando and paratroop units were stationed near Cairo under central control but could be transferred quickly to one of the field armies if needed. District commanders, who generally held the rank of major general, maintained liaison with governors and other civil authorities on matters of domestic security.

Decision making in the army continued to be highly centralized during the 1980s.^[6] Officers below brigade level rarely made tactical decisions and required the approval of higher-ranking authorities before they modified any operations. Senior army officers were aware of this situation and began taking steps to encourage initiative at the lower levels of command. A shortage of well-trained enlisted personnel became a serious problem for the army as it adopted increasingly complex weapons systems. Observers estimated in 1986 that 75 percent of all conscripts were illiterate when they entered the military.

Since the 1980s the army has built closer and closer ties with the United States, as evidenced in the bi-annual Operation Bright Starexercises. This cooperation eased integration of the Egyptian Army into the Gulf War coalition of 1990-91, during which the Egyptian II Corps under Maj. Gen. Salah Mohamed Attia Halaby, with 3rd Mechanised Division and 4th Armoured Division, fought as part of the Arab Joint Forces Command North.^[7]

The Army conducted Exercise Badr '96 in 1996 in the Sinai.^[8] The exercises in the Sinai were part of a larger exercise that involved 35,000 men in total. According to Arabic Wikipedia, the army was able to transfer half the equipment to the Egyptian army in Sinai in six hours and was able to reach a state of alert in eleven minutes.

Today conscripts without a college degree serve three years as enlisted soldiers.^{[citation needed]} Conscripts with a General Secondary School Degree serve two years as enlisted soldiers. Conscripts with a college degree serve one year as enlisted or three years as a reserve officer.

Egypt's varied army weapons inventory complicates logistical support for the army. National policy since the 1970s has included the creation of a domestic arms industry (including the Arab Organization for Industrialization) capable of indigenous maintenance and upgrades to existing equipment, with the ultimate aim of Egyptian production of major ground systems.^[9] This target was finally met with the commencement of M-1 Abrams production in 1992.^[10] (Egypt had received permission to build an M-1 factory in 1984.) Prior to this, large acquisitions had included nearly 700 M-60A1 main battle tanks from the US from March 1990, as well as nearly 500 Hellfire anti-tank guided missiles.