Egypt orders sixth E-2C Hawkeye from Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman Corporation has signed a foreign military sales (FMS) contract to deliver an E-2C Hawkeye 2000 export configuration aircraft to Egypt. This contract adds the modification and upgrade of a sixth Egyptian E-2C, a former US Navy E-2C airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, to a programme awarded previously and brings the value of the work to be done to $163 million.

In late 1999, Egypt contracted for the upgrade of its five Hawkeyes under a Navy FMS contract valued at approximately $138 million, which funds nonrecurring design and development work and the procurement of retrofit kits and initial spares. A subsequent contract authorisation later this year will add the installation of the upgrade kits into the five Egyptian-owned E-2C's.

All six aircraft will be modified by the Airborne Early Warning and Electronic Warfare (AEW&EW) Systems business area of the company's Integrated Systems Sector (ISS).

All five Egyptian Air Force E-2C aircraft are Group 0 Hawkeyes and will be converted to the Hawkeye 2000 export configuration. The Hawkeye 2000 export configuration features the same new Mission Computer Upgrade and Advanced Control Indicator Set workstations are included in the US Navy Hawkeye 2000's. Delivery of the first modified aircraft to Egypt is currently scheduled for October 2002.

The Egyptian Air Force project joins a similar effort ongoing for Japan's Air Self Defence Force, where the first of Japan's 13 Hawkeyes are being upgraded to the same configuration under a $20 million contract awarded in 1998. Follow-on orders for Japan's Hawkeyes are expected to increase the total programme value to approximately $250 million. In this case, installations are to be done in Japan.

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