The State Department has approved Egypt’s three foreign military sales requests worth approximately $5.3 billion combined for Abrams tank refurbishment, Hellfire AGM-114R missiles, Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems, or APKWS, and related equipment and support services.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Friday it has already notified Congress of the proposed FMS deals.
Abrams Tank Refurbishment
General Dynamics’ land systems business will serve as the principal contractor in the proposed $4.7 billion deal to upgrade and refurbish 555 units of M1A1 Abrams tanks into the M1A1SA configuration at a plant in Cairo.
The proposed sale includes AN/VAS-5B Driver Vision Enhancer kits, thermal imaging system gunner’s sights; M250 smoke grenade launchers, AGT-1500 tank engines, X-1100 tank transmissions, spares, repair parts, technical and logistics services to support the modernization of Egypt’s fleet of main battle tanks and help counter current and future threats.
About 20 U.S. government representatives and 20 contractor personnel will be required to perform semi-annual trips to Egypt over a period of 10 years to oversee the program’s refurbishment, fielding and training efforts.
Hellfire AGM-114R Missile Deal
The proposed $630 million sale of 2,183 Hellfire AGM-114R air-to-ground missiles and related logistics and program support will enable Egypt to improve its capability to defend itself from regional malign actors and enhance interoperability with U.S. forces-operated systems.
Lockheed Martin will serve as the prime contractor in the FMS deal, which also includes U.S. government technical assistance, hardware equipment, repair and return services and technical publications.
Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System
Egypt also requested to procure 542 more units of APKWS from the U.S. government through a $30 million FMS transaction to help counter terrorist activities in North Sinai, sustain security operations and strengthen its internal and external defense capabilities.
BAE Systems will serve as the prime vendor in the proposed sale, which also covers test support equipment, personnel training and training systems, transportation, technical, U.S. government and contractor engineering and spare and repair parts.
U.S. government and contractor representatives will travel to the Middle Eastern country multiple times over three years to conduct program and technical reviews, site surveys, maintenance, program management and training.
