Egypt and Spain strengthen ties to boost bilateral cooperation in defence
The Arab Republic of Egypt has the largest and most powerful armed forces on the African continent, with more than one million personnel, half of whom are on active duty. Its arsenal of weapons comes largely from purchases made in Korea, China, the United States, France, Italy, Turkey, the United Kingdom and Russia.
With 118 million inhabitants, the country of the pyramids also has a very important national defence industry dedicated to meeting the country's military needs. With the support of the Cairo government, the extensive group of Egyptian state and private companies has agreements with different countries and companies and has managed to obtain technology transfers and substantial workloads for its industrial fabric to produce or integrate, in whole or in part, a reasonable amount of the weapons systems and equipment acquired abroad.
But the Egyptian president and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, General Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, wants to go further. For a decade, he has been determined to reduce his dependence on foreign military purchases and to ensure that the combat and logistical capabilities of his Army, Air Force and Navy achieve the highest possible degree of self-sufficiency through cooperation with companies from third countries.
In order to achieve a higher level of sovereignty in its military procurement, raise international awareness of the extensive capabilities of the Egyptian defence industrial base and increase exports to African states, the Cairo government has at its disposal the showcase provided by the Egypt Defence Expo, or EDEX.
EDEX is a biennial exhibition, the fourth edition of which has just closed in the nation's capital, with the participation of more than 400 companies from some 55 countries, attended by nearly 40,000 professionals, senior civilian officials and military commanders from five continents, mainly from the African and Arab world.
Spanish presence at EDEX 2025
The 2025 edition of EDEX was attended by the European industrial corporation Airbus, with its range of C295 tactical transport aircraft manufactured in Seville – 18 of which are in service with the Egyptian Air Force – together with four Spanish companies: Navantia in the maritime sector, as well as GMS Plesium, the JPG group and SVP Aerospace, with products and services to alleviate the harsh conditions imposed by tactical and logistical activity in desert scenarios.
Navantia had a large stand located in a prime location and a must-see for visiting authorities and delegations. The shipyard emphasised the S-80 class submarines, as the Egyptian Navy is interested in replacing its four outdated Russian-made Romeo class submarines. France is proposing the improved Scorpene class from the Naval Group shipyard; Korea, the Dosan Anhn Changho class from the Hanwha Ocean shipyard; and Japan, the Soryu class from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
GMS Plesium, a company based in Barberá del Vallés (Barcelona), exhibited its mounts for medium and heavy weapons, as well as its range of special tools for the maintenance, repair and recovery of tank tracks and armoured vehicles. SVP Aerospace, a company based in Durango (Vizcaya), showcased its secure beyond-line-of-sight tactical link systems via private 5G networks for drones and fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft.
The industrial group JPG, with facilities in Madrid, Linares (Jaén) and Mallabia (Vizcaya), was at EDEX to showcase its capabilities in the maintenance and repair of transmissions, engines and power equipment for wheeled and tracked vehicles, as well as in their reconditioning.
All of the above were visited by an official delegation from the Ministry of Defence, headed by the Director General of Defence Innovation and Industrial Strategy, Air Force Lieutenant General Miguel Ivorra, who also held working meetings with the Minister of Defence and Military Production, General Abdel Maguid Saqr.
Exploring common opportunities for industrial cooperation
The presence of a delegation from the Ministry of Defence at the EDEX 2025 exhibition was preceded a couple of weeks earlier by an official visit to Egypt by the Chief of Defence Staff (JEMAD), Admiral Teodoro Lopez Calderón, who met with his Egyptian counterpart, Lieutenant General Ahmed Fathi Ibrahim Khalifa, to ‘strengthen military cooperation and the exchange of experience between the armed forces of both nations,’ according to an Egyptian statement.
Admiral López Calderón's stay in Egypt coincided with the arrival at the Alexandria naval base of the Navy's new submarine S-81 ‘Isaac Peral’, which was visited by the head of the host country's Navy, Vice Admiral Mahmoud Adel Mahmoud Fawzy, who was accompanied by the Spanish Chief of Defence Staff.
Egypt, like other countries, including the most important ones on the Arabian Peninsula, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, pursues a policy of diversification in its purchases of weapons systems, both land-based and air and naval. Furthermore, Egypt's goals of achieving greater strategic autonomy and broader technological sovereignty in defence matters are shared by Spain.
Consequently, the Ministry of Defence and the Spanish Association of Defence, Security, Aeronautics and Space Technology Companies (TEDAE), whose director general is Cesar Ramos, are already working towards the goal of setting up a Spanish national pavilion at EDEX in 2027.
The EDEX exhibition was launched almost simultaneously with the FEINDEF exhibition in Madrid, Spain's International Defence and Security Fair, whose fifth edition is also scheduled for 2027. Both initiatives share the main purpose of serving as a showcase for the technological capabilities of products and services from their respective defence industries. The Egyptian government has a Ministry of Military Production and the Arab Organisation for Industrialisation (AOI), a large state-owned company dedicated to the manufacture of products for civil and military use.