Egyptian Air Defense Command

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The Egyptian Air Defense Command or ADF (Quwwat Il 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.

1 History
2 Weaponry
3 Regional Air Defense Missile Systems
4 Point Defense Surface to Air Systems
5 MANPADS Surface to Air Systems
6 See also
7 References

[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, 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.

[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:

[edit] 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-104 Patriot PAC-3 missile: 3 Batteries (4 SP units per Battery, 16 missiles per unit plus 1 reload each) (Medium/High Altitude,Medium/Long 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: 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-3 2M Pechora missile: 43 Batteries (each with 4 Stationary units, 4 missiles per Stationary unit plus 2 reloads each) (Low/Medium Altitude, Medium 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)
SA-17 Grizzly 12 Batteries (4 SP units per Battery, 4 missiles per unit plus 2 reloads each)(Medium/High Altitude, Medium/Long Range SAM)

[edit] Point Defense Surface to Air Systems

Ground-launched AIM-120 AMRAAM "SLAMRAAM" missile (SP Medium Altitude, Medium Range SAM) on HUMVEE: 9 Batteries (4 units per battery, 5 Missiles per unit plus 2 reloads each) with ANQ-TPS 67 radar
SA-15 Gauntlet-Tor-M: 6 Batteries (4 units per Battery, 8 missiles per unit plus 2 reloads per unit) (SP Low Attitude, Short/Medium Range SAM)
Skyguard "Amoun" anti-aircraft system Aspide 2000 missile: 9 Batteries (4 units per Battery, 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)
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 SP units (4 Missiles per unit plus 2 reloads each)(SP Low Altitude, Short Range SAM)
SA-9 Gaskin Strela-1 missile: 9 Batteries (6 SP units on BRDM-2 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 SP units (8 Missiles each plus 3 reloads each) (SP Low Altitude, Short Range SAM/fire control radar& computer on HUMVEE )

[edit] MANPADS Surface to Air Systems

Indigenous Hawk-eye based on modernized SA-7 Strela 2 missile: Several hundred missiles (IR-seeking Low Altitude, Short Range SAM)(MANPADS & SP on Jeep)
FIM-92 Stinger missile: Several hundred missiles(IR-seeking Low Altitude, Short Range SAM)(MANPADS & SP on Jeep)

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.