someone at Tel Aviv University seems to think Egypt is of little threat to Israel
Oct. 12, 2004
MORNING REPORT
Vol. 6 No. 378
Egypt's Military Poses Little Threat to Israel
TEL AVIV [MENL] -- Egypt's military has failed to exploit its Western
platforms, technology and combat doctrine and poses virtually no threat to Israel, a new study said.
The study by Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies
asserted that Egypt's military continues to operate under the same Soviet
combat and training doctrine as that during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Egypt fought the 1973 war with Soviet advisers and weapons. "It [Egypt] is an army that has changed its characteristics, from Eastern to Western platforms," Shlomo Brom, a senior researcher at the
center, said. "But when you see how the army operates, there has been no change."
Egypt, with a force of 450,000 soldiers, about 75 percent of whom
comprise the ground forces, has largely replaced its Soviet arsenal with
U.S. platforms and weapons. Egypt has an air force fleet of about 220 F-16s, 800 M1A1 main battle tanks, Apache attack helicopters and Hawk anti-aircraft batteries -- all procured since 1980.
But the report said Egypt, which receives $1.3 billion in annual U.S.
military aid, has failed to implement the Revolution in
Military Affairs [RMA], meant to exploit the Western superiority in
precision-guided weapons, intelligence and command and control. As a result, Egypt -- despite obtaining many of the same platforms acquired by Israel --has been unable to optimize its battlefield force...
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