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Egypt NATIONAL SECURITY
Armed Forces (1989): Total personnel on active duty
445,000, including draftees mostly serving for three years.
Reserves totaled about 300,000. Component services: army of
320,000 (estimated 180,000 conscripts), navy of 20,000 including
2,000 Coast Guard (10,000 conscripts), and air force of 30,000
(10,000 conscripts). Air Defense Force separate service of 80,000
(50,000 conscripts).
Major Tactical Military Units (1988): Army: four
armored divisions, six mechanized infantry divisions, two
infantry divisions, four independent infantry brigades, three
mechanized brigades, one armored brigade, two air mobile
brigades, one paratroop brigade, Republican Guard armored
brigade, two heavy mortar brigades, fourteen artillery brigades,
two surface-to-surface missile (SSM) regiments, and seven
commando groups.
Navy: Twelve submarines, one destroyer (training), five
frigates, twenty-five fast-attack craft (missile), eighteen fastattack craft (torpedo), minesweepers, and landing ships.
Air Force: About 440 combat aircraft and 72 armed
helicopters; force organized into one bomber squadron, ten
fighter-ground attack squadrons, thirteen fighter squadrons, two
reconnaissance squadrons, and fifteen helicopter squadrons, plus
electronic monitoring, early warning, transport, and training
aircraft. Air Defense Force organized into more than 230
battalions of antiaircraft guns and SAMs.
Military Equipment (1989): Tanks and armored personnel
vehicles a mix of older Soviet and newer United States models.
Other major equipment included Soviet artillery and mortars;
Soviet, French, United States, and British antitank rockets and
missiles; and mostly Soviet tactical air defense weapons. Egypt
planned to coproduce 540 Abrams M1A1 tanks with United States
beginning in 1991. Air force fighters included F-16s and F-4s
from United States and Mirage 2000s from France, backed by large
number of older Soviet designs. Most fighting ships of Soviet or
Chinese origin, although fleet included two modern frigates built
in Spain and six British missile boats. Air Defense Force had
more than 600 Soviet SA-2 and SA-3 SAMs plus 108 improved Hawk
SAMs from United States.
Defense Budget: Authoritative data not available
although minister of defense claimed spending ŁE2.4 billion or 10
percent of total government outlays in 1989. Other sources
believed defense expenditures twice as high as claimed, even
excluding US$1.3 billion in military aid from United States, aid
from Saudi Arabia, and income from other sources such as foreign
sales of domestic defense industry.
Internal Security Forces: Principal security agencies--
national police force of more than about 122,000 members and
Central Security Forces, a paramilitary body of about 300,000,
mostly conscripts, which augmented regular police in guarding
buildings and strategic sites and controlling demonstrations.
Several other government agencies had own law enforcement bodies.
General Directorate for State Security Investigations main
intelligence organization monitoring suspected subversive and
opposition groups and suppressing Islamic extremists.
Data as of December 1990
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