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The military industry of Egypt produces defense and security products including small arms, armored vehicles, and naval vessels for the Egyptian Armed Forces. Equipment is also exported. Egypt has co-production agreements with several countries, including the United States and France.[1][2]
Near the end of World War II, Egypt came into possession of a large quantity and variety of armaments left behind by Nazi Germany,[3] including large stockpiles of 8mm Mauser ammunition that had been manufactured by several Axis countries. The Egyptian government decided to manufacture a semi-automatic battle rifle and purchased the tooling and plans for the Swedish Automatgevär m/42 (Ag m/42) rifle, and re-engineered it to use the 8mm Mauser cartridges and a gas adjustment valve. The resulting Hakim Rifle was manufactured and fielded from the early 1950s until c. 1961. Egypt also briefly manufactured another re-engineered Ag ms/42, chambered for the 7.62×39mm Soviet cartridge, called the Rasheed Carbine. These guns were replaced in the 1960s by the Maadi AK-47, a licensed copy of the AK-47.
During the late 1950s, Egypt built the Jabal Hamzah ballistic missile test and launch facility to test-fire and to experiment with the domestically built Al Zafir and Al Kahir SRBMs.[4]
Egypt was involved in supplying the Central Intelligence Agency with various weapons for Operation Cyclone during the Soviet–Afghan War. CIA Officer Gust Avrakotos set up a deal with Egyptian Defense Minister Abd al-Halim Abu Ghazala for Egypt to manufacture .303 ammunition for the hundreds of thousands of Lee–Enfield rifles that it supplied to the Afghan mujahideen through Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence. Congressman Charlie Wilson helped lower political barriers for the deals to go through.[5]
The military industry in Egypt is organised across the following organisations:[6]
The Egypt Defence Expo (EDEX) is held in Cairo every two years.[7]
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