Officials said the Egyptian demand was discussed during talks with
visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. On Wednesday, Gates met his
Egyptian counterpart Hussein Tantawi as well as President Hosni Mubarak in
discussions that included Egyptian defense requests and regional issues.
"The Egyptians have a long list of complaints about how they are being
denied advanced military platforms," an official said.
Gates and his Egyptian hosts reviewed their defense and military
relationship and cooperation, officials said. Egypt receives $1.3 billion in
military aid annually but has been rebuffed in requests for a range of
advanced U.S. platforms and systems.
"We discussed the bilateral relationship at some length, obviously
especially the military-to-military relationship," Gates said. "We reviewed
the very robust defense relationship, and especially Egypt's operational
support for us."
Officials said the Mubarak regime has sought advanced F-16 Block 52+
multi-role fighters and the Longbow radar for the AH-64D Apache attack
helicopter. They said Tantawi also discussed procurement of the Joint Direct
Attack Munitions, a system that converts conventional air bombs to smart
munitions.
Congress has objected to the Egyptian requests, some of them submitted
as early as 2003. Democrats and Republicans cite Cairo's human rights
violations, crackdown on pro-democracy dissidents and failure to stop the
flow of Egyptians to join the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.
An aide to Gates said Egypt has sought additional U.S. aid and rapid
weapons deliveries. The aide said Cairo has been concerned that the war in
Iraq has marginalized the U.S. military alliance with Egypt.
The Bush administration has urged Egypt to divert resources from its
conventional military to special operations and counter-insurgency.
Officials said the Pentagon wants Egypt to become a major player in regional
efforts against Al Qaida.
"We would like to see a transition from the post-Soviet dependency on
conventional weaponry to something more expeditionary, more related to
counter-terrorism and focused on the non-state actors," the Gates aide said.
U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, said Egypt
was the biggest supplier of Sunni insurgents to Iraq. Caldwell said Egypt
was followed by Syria, Sudan and Saudi Arabia.
"We have several hundred foreign fighters in captivity and the greatest
number come out of Egypt," Caldwell said.
