Egyptian Air Defense Command
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The Egyptian Air Defense Command or ADF (Quwwat Il Difaa Al Jawwi 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 soldiers and 40,000 conscripts.
[edit] 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. Responsibility had previously been divided among several commands.
[edit] 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 western, local or Soviet design, including
- MIM-104 Patriot PAC-3 missile 12 Batteries (6 Units per Battery, 6 missiles per unit plus 2 reloads each) (Medium Altitude, Short/Medium Range ABM/SAM)
- Modernized MIM-23 HAWK "Improved HAWK" missile 36 Batteries (6 SP or Stationary Units per Battery, 3 missiles per Unit plus 2 reloads each)(Medium/High Altitude, Medium/Long Range SAM)
- Modernized SA-3 Pechora missile 53 Batteries (6 SP Units per Battery, 2 missiles per S/P unit or 6 missiles per Stationary unit plus 2 reloads each) (SP Low/Medium Altitude, Medium Range SAM)
- Indigenous "Tayer el-Sabah" (Morning Bird) (reverse-engineered SA-2 Guideline S-75 Dvina missile 40 Batteries (6 single units per Battery, 2 reloads each)(High Altitude, Long Range SAM)
- Modernized SA-6 Gainful missile 14 Batteries (6 SP Units per Battery, 3 missiles per unit plus 2 reloads each)(SP Low/Medium Altitude, Medium Range SAM)
- Indigenous Hawk-eye SA-7 Strela 2 modernized missile Several hundred missiles (IR-seeking Low Altitude, Short Range SAM)(MANPADS & SP)
- FIM-92 Stinger missile Several hundred missiles(IR-seeking Low Altitude, Short Range SAM)(MANPADS)
- SA-9 Gaskin Strela-1 missile 9 Batteries (6 units per battery, 4 missiles per unit plus 3 reloads per unit)(SP Low Altitude, Short/Medium Range SAM)
- M-1097 Avenger system FIM-92 Stinger missile 48 Units (8 Missiles each plus 3 reloads each) (SP Low Altitude, Short Range SAM/fire control radar& computer on HUMVEE )
- Crotale missile missile 12 Batteries (6 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" 48 Units (4 Missiles per unit plus 2 reloads each)(SP Low Altitude, Short Range SAM)
- Skyguard "Amoun" anti-aircraft system Aspide 2000 missile 36 Units (8 Missiles per unit plus 2 reloads each)(Stationary/towed Low/Medium Altitude, Short/Medium Range SAM + Radar-controlled Oerlikon 35 mm twin cannon AA guns + Oerlikon-Contraves fire-control system)
- Ground-launched AIM-120 AMRAAM "SLAMRAAM" missile (SP Medium Altitude, Medium Range SAM) on HUMVEE 36 Units (5 Missiles per unit plus 3 reloads each) with ANQ-TPS 67 radar
By 2008, all missiles, radar, command and control systems, EW AWACS "Grumman" E-2 Hawkeye, EW ECM Beechcraft 1900 ELINT, reconnaissance UAV and AA guns are to be linked into a single multi-altitude, national computerized early-waring air defense command via modified C-130E Hercules (modified to AWACS-like specifications) transport aircraft and underground sheltered-reinforced fiber-optic network.
It also deploys several thousands of AA guns (flak), either self-propelled (sp) or towed, radar-controlled with IFF systems of multiple calibres, including 100mm, 85mm, 57mm, 37mm, 35mm Oerlikon Contraves, 23mm (Nile 23, Sinai 23 SP radar-controlled, ZSU-23-4 Shilka with GUNDISH radar, being modernized with SA-18 Ukrainian SAM system), 14.5mm Quad, 12.7 mm, and others.
