Deal signals health of Egyptian-U.S. relations despite recent events
CAIRO: A $50-million Avenger air defense system purchase by the Egyptian military from Boeing is helping restart the company s production lines which have been inactive since 2004, according to a Boeing statement.
It is also signaling that Egyptian and American core mutual interests continue to be met despite disagreement over the pace of democratic reform in Egypt and other regional issues such as Darfur and the ongoing Israeli-Lebanese conflict, said Mohamed El-Sayed Saeed, political analyst at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
There s real contradictions and real tension so this deal comes in that context, said Saeed, of the late June deal. It is a contradiction that has been happening for years; this is not recent. But there s always a kind of confidence on the Egyptian side that they ll be able to patch up the differences.
Although the deal may appear insignificant relative to the $1.3 billion (LE 7.5 billion) in annual U.S. military aid to Egypt, Saeed said it speaks volumes in confirming that Egyptian-American relations are still close, despite the sometimes strong differences expressed in public rhetoric.
There s never been real agreement on regional issues, said Saeed. But there s a general feeling now that Egyptian policy is in favor of the American stance [on the Israeli-Lebanese conflict].
The Avenger unit, a Humvee equipped with stinger missiles and a 50-caliber machine gun, was last ordered by Egypt in 2000. The deal was worth just over $25 million (over LE140), and delivered 25 units to Egypt by 2004. Production of the units has since been halted.
In a statement to The Daily Star Egypt, the Boeing Huntsville, Alabama communications office explained the deal was signed as a foreign military sale between the U.S. Army and the Egyptian Air Defense Command. The reason for the FMS classification is the Avenger system falls on the list of weapons only allowed to be sold to countries approved by the U.S. government.
Avenger has been in production since 1987 with more than 1,100 fire units fielded with U.S. Army, U.S. Army National Guard and the U.S. Marine Corps, as well as international customers, said the statement. Currently, there is no operational requirement to purchase additional new fire units for the U.S. military although Boeing continues to support our military customers through engineering and support contracts.
A spokesman at the Egyptian Defense Ministry media relations office declined to comment, saying he has not yet received authorization to speak on the matter.
On the prospect of bringing Boeing production lines to Egypt, as reported in all three government papers at the end of 2005, Sami Lahoud, Boeing corporate communications director for the Middle East and Africa, said his company currently has no plans to do so. The rumor came out after Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif met with Thomas Pickering, senior vice president of international relations at Boeing.
Among topics discussed [in the December 2005 meeting], said Pickering, was the idea of copying the successful auto parts production experience Egypt has enjoyed for years to the aviation auto parts industry. Pickering did not say that Boeing was considering producing aircraft parts in Egypt, said Lahoud.
Politically, Saeed said he expects no real changes in Egyptian-American relations in the near future despite the toll those relations have had on Egyptian relations with other Arab countries and the country s image in the region.
As long as the government is working to keep a good relationship with the U.S., everything will continue to as usual, Saeed said. [The Egyptians] know the relationship has bad and poisonous material in it, but they feel their stomachs can digest it.
The Avenger units are scheduled for delivery by September 2008, according to a Boeing statement. The statement did not specify the number of units ordered.
