Egypt-NATIONAL SECURITY

Armed Forces (1989): Total personnel on active duty 445,000, including draftees mostly serving for three years. Reserves totaled about 300,000. Component services: army of 320,000 (estimated 180,000 conscripts), navy of 20,000 including 2,000 Coast Guard (10,000 conscripts), and air force of 30,000 (10,000 conscripts). Air Defense Force separate service of 80,000 (50,000 conscripts).

Major Tactical Military Units (1988): Army: four armored divisions, six mechanized infantry divisions, two infantry divisions, four independent infantry brigades, three mechanized brigades, one armored brigade, two air mobile brigades, one paratroop brigade, Republican Guard armored brigade, two heavy mortar brigades, fourteen artillery brigades, two surface-to-surface missile (SSM) regiments, and seven commando groups.

Navy: Twelve submarines, one destroyer (training), five frigates, twenty-five fast-attack craft (missile), eighteen fastattack craft (torpedo), minesweepers, and landing ships.

Air Force: About 440 combat aircraft and 72 armed helicopters; force organized into one bomber squadron, ten fighter-ground attack squadrons, thirteen fighter squadrons, two reconnaissance squadrons, and fifteen helicopter squadrons, plus electronic monitoring, early warning, transport, and training aircraft. Air Defense Force organized into more than 230 battalions of antiaircraft guns and SAMs.

Military Equipment (1989): Tanks and armored personnel vehicles a mix of older Soviet and newer United States models. Other major equipment included Soviet artillery and mortars; Soviet, French, United States, and British antitank rockets and missiles; and mostly Soviet tactical air defense weapons. Egypt planned to coproduce 540 Abrams M1A1 tanks with United States beginning in 1991. Air force fighters included F-16s and F-4s from United States and Mirage 2000s from France, backed by large number of older Soviet designs. Most fighting ships of Soviet or Chinese origin, although fleet included two modern frigates built in Spain and six British missile boats. Air Defense Force had more than 600 Soviet SA-2 and SA-3 SAMs plus 108 improved Hawk SAMs from United States.

Defense Budget: Authoritative data not available although minister of defense claimed spending £E2.4 billion or 10 percent of total government outlays in 1989. Other sources believed defense expenditures twice as high as claimed, even excluding US$1.3 billion in military aid from United States, aid from Saudi Arabia, and income from other sources such as foreign sales of domestic defense industry.

Internal Security Forces: Principal security agencies-- national police force of more than about 122,000 members and Central Security Forces, a paramilitary body of about 300,000, mostly conscripts, which augmented regular police in guarding buildings and strategic sites and controlling demonstrations. Several other government agencies had own law enforcement bodies. General Directorate for State Security Investigations main intelligence organization monitoring suspected subversive and opposition groups and suppressing Islamic extremists.

Data as of December 1990