The US State Department has approved a request from Egypt to upgrade 555 of its 1,130 General Dynamics Land Systems M1A1 ABRAMS main battle tanks (MBT) into M1A1SA (Situational Awareness) configuration.

This Foreign Military Sale (FMS) will be a full package deal including tank refurbishment, support, and related modern equipment for an estimated cost of $4.69 billion.

The upgrades will include Night Vision Technology Solutions AN/VAS- 5B Driver Vision Enhancer (DVE-A) kits and thermal imaging system gunner's sights, M250 smoke grenade launchers, AGT-1500 tank engines, X-1100 tank transmissions, spare parts, support equipment and government-furnished equipment. The US Government and the contractor will provide the engineering, technical, and logistics support services. The M1A1SA upgrade's main contractor will be General Dynamics Land Systems, with all refurbishment and equipment installations taking place at the Egyptian Tank Plant in Cairo. Indeed, it is important to highlight that Egypt is the only country outside the United States that produces the M1A1 ABRAMS. This deal will also create economies of scale, reducing the unit price of spare parts for both countries. In the African country there are also other older tanks, such as Soviet T-54, T-55 and T-62 and US M60. Replacing these tanks could lead to additional production or upgrades of the Egyptian ABRAMS fleet.

In its news release, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) of the US Department of Defense, underlined that this FMS “will contribute to the modernization of Egypt’s main battle tank fleet – not providing additional tanks, enhancing its ability to meet current and future threats” and “will not alter the basic military balance in the region”. At the same time, the new M1A1SA will “contribute to Egypt's goal of updating its military capability while further enhancing interoperability with the United States and other allies.”

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