Egypt's Missile Efforts Succeed with Help from North Korea
Washington does not like to talk about Egypt as a proliferation
threat, but Cairo's flourishing missile partnership with North Korea is
beginning to worry U.S. officials. After years of help from Pyongyang,
Cairo can now produce its own version of the Soviet Scud-B missile,
which can deliver nuclear or chemical warheads up to 300 kilometers. It
is also developing a more advanced Scud-C version that could threaten
all of Israel and target Arab cities in Libya, Syria and Sudan.
"If we were to rank our concerns in Egypt," a U.S. official tells the Risk Report,
"it would be missiles first, then chemical weapons, then biological
weapons, and last--a good ways down on the list--Egypt's nuclear
program." Because Egypt, a U.S. ally, does not possess nuclear weapons
and currently has a peace treaty with Israel, Washington has watched
Cairo's missile industry grow without saying much. But that may change.
"There is a 15-year old Scud relationship between North Korea and
Egypt," says a U.S. official who tracks missile proliferation, "and by
now Egypt is relatively far along in its indigenous production
effort--there are Scud-Bs coming out of the production line."
Washington has expressed its concern about the missile trade to
Pyongyang and Cairo, but the question is whether the Administration
will impose sanctions. Under U.S. law, the Clinton administration can
impose two-year trade sanctions on any foreign company or person that
"conspires or attempts to engage in" the export of Scud-size missiles
or the transfer of equipment or technology that "contributes to the
design, development or production of missiles" in a country such as
Egypt. If applied, the sanctions would penalize the buyers in Egypt as
well as the sellers in North Korea.
The early years
Cairo began its quest for nuclear-capable missiles in the early 1960s.
A group of German engineers and scientists were imported to help build
a satellite launcher and a series of liquid fuel missiles known as the
Zafir, the Kahir and the Ra'id, with projected ranges of 370km, 600km
and 1,500 kilometers respectively. None of these missiles ever became
operational, partly due to problems with the guidance technology and
partly due to widespread mismanagement of the projects.
After Egypt's defeat in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Egypt turned to the
Soviet Union for help. In 1972, Moscow agreed to train Egyptian
technicians in guidance technology and later shipped unguided FROG-7
missiles to Egypt that could fly up to 70 kilometers. By early 1973,
the Soviet Union had also agreed to supply approximately 18 completed
Scud-B missiles and nine transporter-erector launchers (TELs). During
the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Egypt was able to launch three
Soviet-supplied Scuds at Israeli positions in the Sinai. After the war,
Egypt began an effort to upgrade its Scuds, and to replace Soviet parts
with Egyptian-made components.
Missile cooperation in the 1980s
It was in the 1980s that Egypt began its first successful drive for
missile production capability. Argentina, Iraq and North Korea were all
recruited as helpers. Egypt's first step was to ship at least two of
its Soviet-supplied Scuds to North Korea for reverse-engineering. In
return for the missiles, Pyongyang agreed to help Cairo build Scuds on
its own. North Korea provided technical documents, drawings and
extensive access to North Korea's own Scud production program.
At the same time it was working with North Korea, Egypt began a secret
project with Argentina and Iraq to build a 1,000km-range missile known
as the Condor-II in Argentina and the Badr-2000 in Egypt. "The goal was
to develop a missile in Argentina and then pass the cookbook to Egypt
and Iraq," says a knowledgeable U.S. official. The project began in
1982, with Egypt promising to help Argentina with technology and with
Iraq paying the bills. The Condor-II/Badr-2000 was a solid-fuel,
two-stage missile designed to fly 800-1,200 kilometers with a
500-kilogram payload.
Work on the Condor-II began at a site near Falda del Carmen in
Argentina's Sierra Chica mountains. Similar sites were later built in
Egypt and Iraq. The Egyptian site reportedly included a missile fuel
and test area at Abu Zaabal and a missile production facility at
Helwan. Argentina, Egypt and Iraq procured the necessary technologies
from a number of Western armament and aerospace companies, primarily in
Germany and Italy. The leading supplier was Germany's
Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm (MBB), which had designed the missile's
Argentine predecessor, the Condor-I.
Due to the sensitivity of the project, its suppliers sought to conceal
their participation after 1985. To accomplish this, work on the
Condor-II was taken over by a consortium of companies known as
"Consen," including some of Europe's defense industry giants. The whole
operation was headquartered in Munich and used foreign subsidiaries.
Press reports have linked several supplier firms to the project,
including SNIA-BPD, a subsidiary of Italy's Fiat; Transtechnica, a
subsidiary of MBB; the French company Sagem; and the German firm MAN.
Nearly 20 others were reported to have played a role in procuring
technologies for the Condor, including companies named Delta Consult,
Ifat, Desintec, Condor Projeckt and Aerotec.
In addition to procuring technology in Europe, Egypt went shopping for
controlled goods in the United States. A California rocket scientist,
Egyptian-born Abdelkader Helmy, was recruited by the Egyptian Defense
Minister General Abdel Halim Abu Ghazala to obtain materials for the
Badr-2000 missile program. Helmy arranged for the export of restricted
U.S. rocket materials to Egypt. But the scheme was thwarted in June
1988, when an Egyptian military officer was arrested in Baltimore as he
tried to illegally load "carbon-carbon" on a Cairo-bound military
transport plane. One year later, Helmy pleaded guilty to one count of
illegally exporting about 420 pounds of carbon-carbon. Carbon-carbon is
used in the manufacture of rocket nose cones, nozzles, and heat shields
on re-entry vehicles. It improves missile accuracy by protecting the
nose cone from the tremendous frictional heat caused during re-entry of
the atmosphere. The Egyptian government insisted on diplomatic immunity
for the Egyptian officers who were implicated. But Helmy was sentenced
in June 1989 to 46 months in prison and fined over $350,000. He was
also ordered to forfeit most of what prosecutors said were $1 million
in payments by Egyptian intelligence operatives via Swiss banks. James
Huffman, an associate of Helmy's who had helped arrange the export, was
sentenced to 41 months in prison and fined $7,500. The U.S. district
judge who tried the case in California reportedly described Helmy's
scheme to acquire sensitive U.S. missile materials as a "large,
complex, intricate conspiracy" developed by Egypt with financial
backing from Iraq. President Mubarak fired Abu Ghazala in April 1989,
but official American and Egyptian reactions to this incident were
muted. The incident did not affect Egypt's $2 billion in military and
economic aid each year from the United States.
At the same time Helmy was active in the United States, Egyptian
missile experts were in Iraq working on the Condor-II. From 1987 until
the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Egyptian experts were working
alongside Iraqis at a missile complex about 40 kilometers south of
Baghdad. In August 1989, an explosion at the site killed hundreds of
workers, including Egyptian military engineers. Egyptian-Iraqi missile
cooperation included work on extending the range of Scud missiles as
well on the Condor-II. As part of the deal, Cairo had always planned to
import the means to produce its own version, the Badr-2000. Egypt
received some technology from Argentina and started to build its own
production facilities, but critical technology was still missing in the
late 1980s. Jane's Defence Weekly reported
that a 1988 "dummy test" in Argentina, which had included launch
preparation and software trials, showed the Condor to have significant
technical problems. Its development was not complete when, under
pressure from the United States, Argentina decided to cancel its
participation in the project in 1990.
"Fortunately, we engineered
the demise of the Condor in Argentina before the cookbook or blueprints
were ready," says a U.S. official. Though Argentina is now out of the
Condor business, U.S. officials tell the Risk Report that
Iraq and Egypt may not be. "In Egypt, the Condor [Badr-2000] has never
entirely died, but it is on life support--a nurse monitors the vital
signs and some research is being conducted, but full resuscitation is
unlikely," says a State Department official. The full extent of Egypt's
secret missile cooperation with Iraq before and after the Gulf War is
still not known. Cairo has refused requests for information about the
Condor-II from the U.N. inspectors in Iraq charged with monitoring
Saddam's continuing missile efforts.
Egypt's main missile
priority has now shifted from the Condor/Badr-2000 to the simpler Scud
technology, which Egypt is pushing ahead with full vigor. The Scud
program is now getting steady infusions of equipment, technology and
training. Earlier this year, U.S. intelligence detected several North
Korean missile-related shipments to Egypt. According to a CIA (Central
Intelligence Agency) report quoted in the Washington Times in
June, Pyongyang has made at least seven shipments of materials for
Scud-C missiles, including steel sheets and support equipment. The
transfers took place in March and April and the CIA was quoted as
saying that they "could allow Egypt to begin Scud-C series production."
Egypt's goal is to build its own version of North Korea's Scud-C,
which can fly up to 600 kilometers depending on the payload, and has
better accuracy than the Scud-B. This would allow Egypt to hit targets
throughout Israel as well as in Libya, Sudan and Syria. According to
U.S. officials, Egypt is rapidly approaching success. "It's safe to
assume that Egypt has successfully enhanced the range of its Scud," a
U.S. official tells the Risk Report.
By the year 2,000, if Egyptian-North Korean cooperation continues at
its present level, Egypt also could gain access to North Korea's more
advanced "Nodong" missile. Pyongyang is already sharing Nodong
technology with Iran. The Nodong is a medium-range missile that was
first tested in 1993 across the Sea of Japan. If Pyongyang does help
Cairo build larger missiles such as the Nodong, the U.S. Administration
may feel more pressure to intervene. But it is easier for Washington to
penalize North Korea, as it did in 1992 for selling missiles to Iran,
than to punish Egypt, an ally with close U.S. military ties. A U.S.
official admits that "it is easier for us to focus on rogue states like
Iran, Iraq and North Korea than to talk about our friends like Egypt or
Israel."
http://www.wisconsinproject.org/countries/egypt/miss.html
موضوع: رد: مصر والسعودية تطوّران صواريخهما .. اخيرا 
الجمعة 30 يوليو 2010 - 16:47
