Posted on 08/26/2012 8:49:21 AM PDT by Nachum
Egypt has deployed U.S.-made surface-to-air missiles and tanks near the border with Israel, in a breach of the 1979 peace treaty, reports the World Tribune.
Western defense sources said the Egyptian Army has deployed "a range of assets supplied by the United States." They cited main battle tanks (MBTs) and surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), particularly in the northeastern Sinai area, between the coastal city of El Arish and the border with Israel and Gaza.
“Right now, all of the [Egyptian] heavy weapons have been deployed along the Israeli border,” a defense source said.
The U.S.-made MBTs were identified as the M-60A3, which was exported to Egypt in the 1980s. The sources told the Tribune that the Egyptian Army has deployed between 20 and 30 of these in eastern Sinai.
(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
Never trust Muslim governments.
“I agree we should put “something” in the electronics that turns everything off with a low probability of intercept RF command. “
Or even better yet, something that isn’t so obvious as turning everything off. Something that randomly slightly alters accurate aiming, something that cause random intermittent temporary breakdowns, something that causes random unreliability at some settable degree.
You dont think the israelis have already done this?
Good point.
The Israelis should have kept the Sinai. It would have made a nice buffer.
Thank Hillary and Barry. The two anti-Semites, IMO.
Poppycock.
The Bible IS the word of God. That's good enough for me.
Archeology always eventually finds evidence to support and back up what God gave us thousands of years ago.
And just as God destroyed Egypt under Pharoah in the days of Moses, the word of God says He will destroy Egypt again in the last day. Stand by, a real “shock and awe,” is on the way.
Now both sides have US tools and weapons—looks like it will all depend on the training and generalship of each army to win the day. As the Moslem Brotherhood has fired all the top Egyptian Generals this will not serve them well. Look for another Israeli Victory when, and if, war comes.
Well, there are some learned comments on this thread to which I'll try and add. I think the A3 was a great tank in 1982. Great Optics package/thermal imaging which at that time was superior to the M1A1. But, that was 1982. The M-60A3 shouldn't be the front-line force for the Egyptian army, as others have pointed out, the Egyptian army makes M1-A1's in country.
So, one way to read that is that such a deployment pacifies the Muslim Brotherhood base as it sees its new government as challenging the Jews. At the same time, the Israeli's know this isn't front line weaponry and so they can let the MB pound their chests and know that they really aren't threatened and can deploy accordingly.
If the MB is so stupid as to say something like, "Send the tanks! Deploy to attack the Jews." And this is all they can muster, well, then they are going to get wiped out like they were in 1956, 1967 and 1983. Without front line, air-cover, SAMS, ZSU's and Manpads whatever tanks the MB sends against Israel will be reduced to smoking scrap metal in a real hurry.
I have zero respect for Arab tankers. Zero. There are no dangerous weapons. Only Dangerous Men. I am sure that against crowds of civilians the M-60A3 will be quite effective. Against the Israeli army/Air Force, not so much.
Semper Fi,
TS
Former M60A1 tanker here. The A3 can have reactive armor bolted to it and a thermal sight. But they do not have the Chobham armor of the M1. Also they still have the M68 105mm main gun. They can be dangerous if used properly. But they are old and will not stand up well againdst the 120mm of an M1A2.
In my opinion, these are throwaways intended to establish a point. If Israel backs down then the Egyptians can send in their more valuable M1A1s. If Israel knocks them out, well, they were just M60A3s.
Good insight. Thanks for posting.
“You dont think the israelis have already done this?”
LOL! One can only hope!
I've read an account of the Egyptian Army, that emphasized how it was paralyzed by the fear of loss of face that would arise if a mistake was made. Everything was planned to the smallest detail, so that no one (below the planning level) ever had to make a decision. Ever.
The author described a lecture he was supposed to give, or maybe attend. Anyway, something came up at the last minute, which caused a need to change the class room the lecture was to be given in. In the American Army a trivial decision, like switching the classroom a lecture would be given in, would have been handled at the NCO level. In the Egyptian Army, no one wants to make a decision themselves, less they get blamed if the decision is wrong. So the officers who were supposed to attend the lecture stood around for a couple of hours, while the issue was kicked upstairs for a decision. It had to go up to the post commander, up to his superiors, and finally all the way to the equivalent of the Secretary of the Army's Office, before anyone would approve the change in classrooms.
I agree. As per David H. Aaron's "Etched in Stone: The Emergence of the Decalogue", a critical survey of biblical literature demonstrates no cognizance of the ten commandments prior to the post-exilic period (after 586 BCE)
Pretty much the same could be said of Jesus today, It's called faith that we believe in what we are taught from the Bible and the Alter.
I've never understood faith. While there are certainly sources that I trust, it's not a blind trust. Given enough evidence, I'll change my mind regarding anything. Nothing should be free from questioning.
The M60A3 is much more reliable than the M1 series. Who would take a turbine engine and stick it into a tank that makes a dust storm every where it goes? I worked on many military series of trucks, tanks, personnel carriers, etc., and the M1 is a maintenance nightmare. Paper manuals for that thing take up about 100 feet of shelf space.
Thats the same thing I hear too.
However, that doesn’t mean that the Egyptian armed forces can’t make a terrific amount of trouble for the Israelis if they were to turn actively hostile. They managed that in 1973. The Israelis can be, unit by unit, 3x as effective as the Egyptians, but the Israelis will still risk large manpower losses and enormous expense if they have to go over the border.
The bits I am wondering about is whether the Egyptians can afford to move the bulk of the military into the Sinai at all, and to maintain a credible defensive posture there for any significant time. This will cost lots of money and they are flat broke.
The real danger to Israel from the Egyptian armed forces is if the MB used it to apply a credible threat, during some negotiation, that Israel would see as dangerous and costly to eliminate.
For instance, if the Egyptians send the army into the Sinai, while at the same time making territorial and policy demands in favor of the Hamas regime in Gaza. They would be able to threaten Israel with costly nuisance attacks, like shutting down Israeli airspace to commercial aviation or a general bombardment of Israeli cities many times more effective than Hezbollah could manage, while making it expensive for Israel to counter the threat. Israel would have to mobilize 100% (expensive), and a Sinai campaign against the current Egyptian army, though probably ultimately victorious, would certainly cost thousands of casualties.
The Israelis would have to think about how much they would be willing to risk in that game of chicken. The MB could plausibly win a diplomatic victory that way.
Incorrect.
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