DTN News - EGYPT DEFENSE NEWS: Egypt Opts For The Rafale

DTN News - EGYPT DEFENSE NEWS: Egypt Opts For The Rafale
*France is to sell 24 Rafale fighter jets to Egypt along with a naval frigate and missiles in a deal worth more than €5 billion, President François Hollande said Thursday, the first time a foreign buyer has been found for the French-built warplanes

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Dassault Aviation & France 24
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - February 13, 2015: French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will travel to Cairo Monday to sign the final agreement with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Hollande said in a statement issued by his office.

“The Rafale fighter jet has won its first export contract,” Hollande said, confirming a report in French daily Le Monde published earlier Thursday that said a deal had been agreed.

“The Egyptian authorities have just let me know their intention of acquiring 24 Rafale planes, a multi-mission frigate as well as related equipment,” he added.

These last two items are believed to be a FREMM warship, currently used by the French and Italian navies, and a number of short and medium-range missiles built by MBDA.

The deal follows years of failed attempts by France to export the Rafale, described as one of the most effective and sophisticated fighter jets in the world, but also one of the most expensive.

A potential deal to sell the multipurpose warplanes to Brazil  fell through in 2013 when the country chose jets made by Sweden’s Saab instead.

And although manufacturer Dassault Aviation, which launched the Rafale more than a decade ago, has been in exclusive negotiations with India for the last three years, a final deal has yet to be signed.

The French government has reduced its order for the planes to 26 Rafale jets over the next five years, down from 11 a year so far, putting Dassault under further pressure to find a foreign buyer.

Credit facility

A potential deal with Egypt was first muted in November last year during Sisi’s state visit to Paris, according to Le Monde, where discussions were held about replacing Egypt's fleet of 18 Mirage jets, also built by Dassault.

Though funding issues were believed to be a concern, French business daily Les Echos reported earlier this month that the two countries were discussing using a credit facility – arranged by French credit insurer COFACE and involving some of France’s biggest banks – to finance as much as 50 percent of the sale.

France has a history of military hardware deals with Egypt: as well as being the first foreign buyer of the Mirage jet in 1981, Cairo signed a contract last year to buy four French-built naval frigates in a deal worth €1 billion.

Concerns over the rise of jihadist groups in neighbouring Libya and in Egypt’s Sinai province have also seen the countries establish closer ties in recent years.

*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Dassault Aviation & France 24
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DTN News - EGYPT UNREST: Tanks Deployed In Cairo After Deadly Clashes

Defense News: DTN News - EGYPT UNREST: Tanks Deployed In Cairo After Deadly Clashes

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Christophe de Roquefeuil (AFP) 
(NSI News Source Info) SINGAPORE - December 6, 2012: Egypt's worst violence since President Mohammed Morsi was elected forced the army to deploy tanks in Cairo Thursday, as hundreds of people were hurt in clashes between Islamists and the secular opposition.

Morsi was expected to deliver a televised address to the nation after five people were killed overnight in the worst violence since his June election, pitting Islamists against an opposition that has escalated protests since he assumed extensive powers on November 22.

Running street battles outside the Itihadiya palace in northern Cairo also left 644 people wounded, many from birdshot, the health ministry reported.

By Thursday morning, the Republican Guard, the division tasked with protecting the presidency, deployed tanks outside the palace. A few hundred Morsi supporters remained outside the complex after the opposition left.

Republican Guard chief General Mohammed Zaki said the tanks were deployed to separate warring protesters, and pledged that the military "will not be an instrument of oppress

The opposition has said it would organise further marches to the palace as a top presidential aide accused them of coordinating with loyalists of deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak.

A senior presidential aide told AFP Morsi was expected to make a speech later in the day to reach out to the opposition. No time was announced for the address.

The stage was set for Wednesday's violence when Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement announced a march to the palace, where opposition protesters were staging a sit-in a day after tens of thousands surrounded the sprawling complex.

Protesters fired guns and threw firebombs and rocks at each other on Wednesday as their simmering stand-off over Morsi's expanded powers and a draft constitution turned violent.

Bloodied protesters were carried away as gunshots rang out and rival demonstrators torched cars and set off firecrackers near the palace, where Morsi opponents had put up tents before his supporters drove them away.

Riot police were eventually sent in, but clashes still took place in side streets near the palace in the upscale Heliopolis neighbourhood.

The opposition says it will not stand down until Morsi discards his new powers, which allow him to take decisions uncontested by the courts, and cancels a snap December 15 referendum on a new constitution opposed by liberals and Christians.

Early on Thursday, intermittent gunshots rang out amid sporadic violence, an AFP correspondent said, before the tanks took up position.

The overnight violence also spread beyond the capital, with protesters torching Muslim Brotherhood offices in the Mediterranean port city of Ismailiya and in Suez, witnesses said.

The Brotherhood urged protesters on both sides to withdraw, as did Prime Minister Hisham Qandil.

"It's a civil war that will burn all of us," said Ahmed Fahmy, 27, as clashes raged behind him.

"They (Islamists) attacked us, broke up our tents, and I was beaten up," said Eman Ahmed, 47. "They accused us of being traitors."

Activists among the Islamist marchers harassed television crews, trying to prevent them from working, AFP reporters said.

Wael Ali, a 40-year-old Morsi supporter, said: "I'm here to defend democracy. The president was elected by the ballot box."

The United States called for an open and "democratic dialogue" in Egypt.

"The upheaval we are seeing... indicates that dialogue is urgently needed. It needs to be two-way," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in comments echoed by Britain and the European Union.

Despite the protests, Vice President Mahmud Mekki said a referendum on the charter "will go ahead on time" on December 15.

The opposition would be allowed to put any objections to articles in the draft constitution in writing, to be discussed by a parliament yet to be elected.

Prominent opposition leader and former UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Morsi bore "full responsibility" for the violence.

He said the opposition was ready for dialogue but would use "any means necessary" to scupper the charter, stressing, however, that they would be peaceful.

Meanwhile, four Morsi advisers resigned over the crisis, official news agency MENA reported. The head of state television also resigned in protest, the independent newspaper Al-Masry al-Youm reported on its website.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Christophe de Roquefeuil (AFP) 
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DTN News: Middle East Top Stories / Headlines News Dated December 3, 2012

Defense News: DTN News: Middle East Top Stories / Headlines News Dated December 3, 2012

Source: DTN News - -This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources 

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - December 3, 2012: Comprehensive daily news related to Middle East for the world of TODAY.

*Comprehensive daily news related to Middle East Top Stories / Headlines News for the world of TODAY

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*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources 
*Speaking Image - Creation of DTN News ~ Defense Technology News 
*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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DTN News - EGYPT DEFENSE NEWS: Egyptians To Purchase Turkish-Made Drones

Defense News: DTN News - EGYPT DEFENSE NEWS: Egyptians To Purchase Turkish-Made Drones

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By 

Joanna Paraszczuk - Jerusalem Post

(NSI News Source Info) SINGAPORE - November 27, 2012: Turkish paper reports pending sale of ANKA drones; UAVs would extend Egyptian military's intelligence, surveillance capabilities. 

Egypt plans to buy 10 Turkish-made drones, according to a report this week by Istanbul’s Sabah newspaper.

The decision to purchase the ANKA Medium Altitude Long Endurance unmanned aerial vehicles was made last week, during Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Cairo, and followed a 10-week negotiation, Sabah said.

Sabah quoted Turkey’s defense industry ministry spokesman Murad Bayar as saying Turkey plans to begin producing the ANKAs early next year.

The ANKA drones are produced by Turkish Aerospace Industries, Inc. (TAI) and are designed to provide the Turkish military with a long-endurance, persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capability.

The eight-meter-long UAVs have all-weather, day and night ISR mission capabilities and can track fixed or moving targets, according to TAI.

TAI director-general Muharrem Dortkasli told Sabah that other regional countries have also expressed an interest in the ANKA.

Egypt has considered purchasing Turkish UAVs since last year, according to reports in the Turkish and defense industry press. Last year, the Egyptian Navy also signed a contract for six Turkish-built Yonca-Onuk multi-role tactical platform fast interceptor boats.

Ankara’s decision to develop an indigenous UAV came amid deteriorating relations with Israel, which has previously supplied Turkey with drones, and also as part of a wider strategy to extend Turkey’s influence in the region.

Israel became one of Turkey’s major arms suppliers in the 1990s, according to Turkey’s Hurriyet daily newspaper. In 2004, Turkey signed a $180 million defense contract with Israeli companies for 10 Heron UAVS. However, defense relations soured in the wake of the Mavi Marmara flotilla incident in May 2010.

Earlier this month, Hurriyet reported that the Turkish military plans to return three tactical Aerostar UAVs to Israel, citing the drones’ poor performance against the Kurdistan Workers Party.

Turkey said it would not return the Herons, however.

Turkey leased the three Aerostars from Israel for $10 million in 2005, when production of the Herons it ordered was delayed.

Earlier this week, Erdogan said that Turkey was “the top third country in the world” after the US and Israel in terms of UAVs, and that the country also produced its own infantry rifles, warships and helicopters, according to Sabah.


*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By 

Joanna Paraszczuk - Jerusalem Post

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*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News Contact:dtnnews@ymail.com 
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