Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — A U.S.-led multinational force in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula
has been focusing on protection amid the rising Bedouin and Palestinian
insurgency threat.

The Multinational Force and Observers has been procuring and replacing
vehicles and helicopters to protect the 1,656-member unit dominated by the
United States.

Over the last year, MFO has been receiving combat platforms
from Washington to prepare for rocket-propelled grenade and surface-to-air missile strikes by Bedouin and Palestinian militias.

“We are also challenged by Bedouin activism,” MFO director-general David Satterfield said.

In a recent report, MFO, with offices in Egypt, Israel and Italy,
outlined procurement priorities for 2012. The report said the U.S. Army was providing new UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters for patrols over Sinai. The helicopters were meant to replace the force’s eight aging UH-60A platforms.

Washington has also supplied the C-23B Sherpa, regarded as more advanced than the CN-235 of EADS. MFO, assigned to monitor the demilitarization clause of the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, has asked for two additional C-23Bs for spares amid difficulties to maintain platforms by outside contractors.

MFO has been acquiring commercial armored vehicles from the United
States. In August 2011, MFO received five Ford F-350s, increasing the fleet
to 28. Another four armed F-350s were scheduled for delivery in 2012.

The annual report, dated November 2011, said MFO has also introduced
technology to improve communications. Satterfield, a former U.S. diplomat,
cited a vehicle-tracking system to ensure the whereabouts of any of its
jeeps and personnel carriers throughout Sinai.

In the naval arena, MFO has deployed three patrol boats from Italy. No
further details were cited.

  Bedouin and Palestinian insurgents, C-23B Sherpa, David Satterfield, Multinational Force & Observers, U.S.-led forces in Sinai beefs up defenses as terror threats increase, UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter