Egyptian Army
The Egyptian Army is the largest service
branch within the Egyptian military establish-
ment. It
is estimated to number around
340,000, plus around 375,000 reservists for a
total of 655-715,000.[1]
The modern Egyptian army was formed in
the 1830s by Muhammad Ali of Egypt. (See
Military history of Ancient Egypt for the milit-
ary arrangements during antiquity.) He
sought to split Egypt away from the Ottoman
Empire, and to do this he bought in European
weapons and expertise and built an army that
defeated the Sultan and seized control over
Egypt, Syria, and parts of Arabia.[2] The
Egyptian Army was involved in the following
wars during the Mohamad Ali Dynasty:
• The Greek War of Independence
• The 1831 Egyptian-Ottoman War
• The First Turko-Egyptian War
• The Second Turko-Egyptian War
• The Syrian War
But the Europeans intervened on the Sultan’s
behalf, and following their intercession the
Egyptian army languished until Britain took
control of Egypt in the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian
War.
In 1946, the British officers were ousted
and Egyptians took full control.[3] The Free
Officers Movement of the Army, master-
minded by Nasser seized power from King
Farouk of Egypt in the Egyptian Revolution
of 1952. During the Cold War, the army act-
ively fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the
1956 Suez Crisis, the North Yemen Civil War
from 1962 to 1967, the 1967 Six Day War,
the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and the 1977
Libyan–Egyptian War. It has been argued
that only the relatively good performance of
the Egyptian Army in the 1973 war, espe-
cially in Operation Badr and in Battle of
Suez, which allowed the Egyptians to claim a
level of victory and take part in the 1977
Camp David Accords without losing face.
Since the 1980s the army has built closer
and closer ties with the United States, as
evidenced in the bi-annual Operation Bright
Star exercises. This cooperation eased integ-
ration of the Egyptian Army into the Gulf War
coalition of 1990-91, during which the Egyp-
tian
II Corps under Maj. Gen. Salah
Mohamed Attia Halab