Egypt is looking to acquire Hellfire missiles and 70 mm guided rockets worth nearly $700 million.
On 20 December the US State Department approved possible foreign military sales to Egypt of 2 183 AGM-114R Hellfire air-to-ground missiles worth $630 million, and 543 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems (APKWS) worth $30 million.
Lockheed Martin will supply the Hellfire missiles while BAE Systems in the United States will supply the APKWS rockets.
The AGM-114R Hellfire II entered service in late 2012. It uses a semi-active laser homing guidance system and a multipurpose warhead to engage targets that formerly needed multiple Hellfire variants. Maximum range is 8 000 metres. The Hellfire II may be employed autonomously or with remote designation, using either lock-on before launch (LOBL) or lock-on after launch (LOAL) for increased platform survivability.
The US Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said the APKWS order will be added to a previously implemented case valued at $8 million that included 216 APKWS. The APKWS is a low cost semi-active laser guidance kit developed by BAE Systems which is added to unguided 70 mm rockets, turning them into precision strike weapons.
“The proposed sale will address the shared US-Egyptian interest in countering terrorist activities in North Sinai, which threaten regional security and stability. The proposed sale will enhance Egypt’s ability to defend itself against regional malign actors and improve interoperability with US. forces. It will also improve Egypt’s capacity to sustain security operations and strengthen its internal and external defense capabilities. The sale of APKWS will increase the Egyptian Air Force (EAF)’s ability to carry out operations against terrorist forces while significantly reducing risk to civilians. The EAF has already purchased APKWS rockets for use on its Apache aircraft so it will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces,” the DSCA said.
The Hellfire missiles are likely also destined for Egypt’s AH-64 Apache fleet, as Egypt has previously acquired these missiles for it, although the Egyptian Air Force also flies the IOMAX AT-802 aircraft that can carry the Hellfire.
Egypt is a big user of the Apache, with 46 AH-64Ds in service. Some of these were delivered as A models and later upgraded to D standard. Some of these are being remanufactured to AH-64E standard under a $2.3 billion programme approved in 2020.
