Egyptian Air Defense Command

The Egyptian Air Defense Command or EADC ("Quwwat El Difaa Al Gawwi" in Arabic) is Egypt's military command responsible for air defense. Egypt patterned its Air Defense Force (ADF) after the Soviet Anti-Air Defenses, which integrated all its air defense capabilities – antiaircraft guns, rocket and missile units, interceptor planes, and radar and warning installations.

Its current commander is Major General Abdel-Aziz Seif. It consists of 30,000 officers & soldiers plus 40,000 conscripts.

History

After most of the country's aircraft was destroyed on the ground by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967, the military placed responsibility for air defense under one commander, the results of which proved positive by the air defense's performance in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Responsibility had previously been divided among several commands.

Weaponry

It is undergoing extensive modernization with bugdetary constraints being the only hindrance to what was once dubbed by Israeli air force generals during the 1973 Ramadan (Yom Kippur) war as "the most extensive and sophisticated air-defense system in the world after the one defending the U.S.S.R..." It is believed to possess the following weaponry:

Modern low, medium and high altitude SAMs of American, French, Russian design or local license built, including:

Regional Air Defense Missile Systems

*Indigenous Tayer el-Sabah (Morning Bird) (reverse-engineered and modernized SA-2 Guideline S-75 Dvina missile: 40 Batteries (6 single units per Battery, 2 reloads each)(Medium/High Altitude, Long Range SAM)
*MIM-104A missile: 4 Batteries (4 Stationary (towed) units, 4 missiles per unit plus 2 reloads each)(Medium/High Altitude, Long Range SAM w/limited ABM capabilities)
*PAC-3 missile: 3 Batteries (4 SP units per Battery, 16 missiles per unit plus 2 reloads each) (Medium/High Altitude,Short/Medium Range ABM/SAM)
*Modernized MIM-23 HAWK "Improved HAWK" missile: 18 Batteries (6 SP units per Battery, 3 missiles per unit plus 2 reloads each) (Medium/High Altitude, Medium Range SAM)
*Modernized SA-3 2M Pechora missile: 43 Batteries (each with 2 Stationary units, 4 missiles per Stationary unit plus 1 reload each) (Low/Medium Altitude, Medium Range SAM)

Army Corps/Division level SAM

*Modernized SA-3 2M Pechora missile: 10 Batteries (6 SP units per Battery, 2 missiles per S/P unit plus 1 reload per unit) (Low/Medium Altitude, Medium Range SAM)
*Modernized SA-6 Gainful missile: 14 Batteries (6 SP units per Battery, 3 missiles per unit plus 1 reload each)(Low/Medium Altitude, Medium Range SAM)
*SA-17 Grizzly 12 Batteries (6 SP units per Battery, 4 missiles per unit plus 2 reloads each)(Medium/High Altitude, Medium/Long Range SAM)

Field Point Defense Surface to Air Systems

Army Corps and Division level SAM

*Ground-launched AIM-120 AMRAAM "SLAMRAAM" missile on HUMVEE: 9 Batteries (4 units per battery, 5 Missiles per unit plus 2 reloads each) with ANQ-TPS 67 radar (SP Medium Altitude, Medium/Long Range SAM)
*SA-15 Gauntlet-Tor-M: 12 Batteries (6 units per Battery, 8 missiles per unit plus 2 reloads per unit) (Low/Medium Altitude, Short/Medium Range SAM)

Brigade and Battalion level SAM

*Skyguard "Amoun" anti-aircraft system Aspide 2000 missile: 9 Batteries (4 units per Battery, 8 Missiles per unit plus 1 reload each)(Stationary/towed Low/Medium Altitude, Short/Medium Range SAM coupled with radar-controlled Oerlikon 35 mm twin cannon AA guns with Oerlikon-Contraves fire-control system)
*ModernizedCrotale NG missile: 16 Batteries (9 units per Battery, 4 Missiles per unit plus 2 reloads each)(SP Low/Medium Altitude, Short Range SAM)
*MIM-72/M48 Chaparral low-altitude SAM AIM-9 "Sidewinder": 86 SP units (4 Missiles per unit plus 2 reloads each)(SP Low Altitude, Short Range SAM)

By the end of 2008, all missile, radar, command and control systems are to be linked into a complex multi-level, national computerized early-waring air defense command via modified EC-130H Hercules (modified to AWACS-like specifications) transport aircraft, EW AWACS "Grumman" E-2C Hawkeye 2000, EW ECM Beechcraft 1900 ELINT, reconnaissance UAV and underground sheltered-reinforced fiber-optic network. It is also believed that the Egyptian Air Defense Command employs an armada of pterodactyls to help facilitate the deployment of Egyptian air superiority.

See also

* Egyptian Armed Forces

References

* [http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Unique_Surface_To_Air_Missile_Baffles_Foreign_Military_Diplomats_In_Egypt_999.html]
* [http://www.janes.com/defence/news/jdw/jdw060405_1_n.shtml Jane's Defence news on Egyptian S-125 upgrade, April 2006]
* [http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publish/Unique_surface-to-air_missile_20061023.php Defencetalk on Egyptian S-125 upgrade, October 2006]
*http://www.kommersant.com/p718548/r_527/Egypt_arms_trade