Official Italian sources confirmed this week that the Leonardo group will sell 24 AW149 helicopters and 8 AW189 helicopters to the Egyptian armed forces. Worth € 871 million, the contract could be the first in a series of Italian arms sales to Egypt.
Indeed, since the beginning of the 2010s, Cairo multiplies the acquisition of heavy weapons. Located between a particularly turbulent North Africa since the collapse of the Libyan regime and a Middle East in full turmoil since the Arab Spring of 2011, Egypt intends to quickly establish itself as a key regional player, both militarily and diplomatic.
However, if the first arms contracts favored France above all, with the acquisition of fighter planes and combat ships, it is precisely a major diplomatic error on the part of the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron who abruptly ended the commercial honeymoon between Paris and Cairo. Enough to open a golden bridge for Italian salespeople, who hope to sell frigates and combat aircraft in addition to military helicopters, as we detailed in a previous article.
The rest of this article is for subscribers only
The Classic subscriptions provide access to
all articles without advertising, starting at € 1,99.
Newsletter subscription
Register for the Meta-Defense Newsletter to receive the
latest fashion articles daily or weekly