Since the signing more than 40 years ago of the Camp David Accords, which marked the start of an alliance between the United States and Egypt, military cooperation between the two countries has steadily increased.

Signed by US President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, the accords established a framework for a 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.

Egypt and the Soviet Union had drawn closer during the years between the toppling of King Farouk in 1952 by a group of army officers led by Mohamed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Abdel Nasser's death in 1970.

The Soviet Union was seeking to extend its influence, thus focusing its efforts on Egypt for its strategic importance as the gateway to Africa, bridge between Africa and Asia, its Red Sea and Mediterranean ports, and the Suez Canal.

For its part, Egypt received from the Soviet Union the financial aid it needed and, starting with the Czech arms deal of 1955, a massive amount of Soviet military equipment, which -- though outdated -- vastly upgraded its military.

Though each benefited from the alliance, Egypt and the USSR were not natural allies and the relationship was not always smooth, notably as a result of Abdel Nasser's anti-Communist crackdowns, over the protestations of Moscow.

In 1974, following a series of defeats by Israel in which Egypt's Soviet-supplied tanks were unable to compete with Israel's air power, Egypt ended more than 18 years of exclusive reliance on Soviet arms.

"The long‐range political significance of [Egyptian President Anwar] al‐Sadat's decision to diversify Egypt's armaments was called enormous by Western diplomats tonight," the New York Times reported on April 19, 1974.

"They said that the 'Czech arms deal' had resulted in two decades of Egyptian dependence on Moscow and growing Soviet involvement in the Arab world."

"That era is now coming to an end," one diplomat said.

US military alliance

Today, Egypt is ranked as a top 15 power in the 2023 Global Fire Power Index.

It boasts the largest military in Africa, and one of the most powerful in the Middle East -- a position it has achieved with significant assistance from the United States.

Since 1978, the United States has provided Egypt with more than $50 billion in military assistance, the US State Department said in April 2022.

Egypt has become one of the largest recipients of US military aid, which this year exceeds $1.2 billion, according to the Department of Defense.

A top US ally in the Middle East and Africa, Egypt benefits from having powerful US weapons in all three branches of its military.

A recently compiled list of Egyptian army hardware includes 1,130 M1A1 Abrams tanks, an undisclosed number of Stinger missiles, 3,890 high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles (HMMWVs or Humvees), an undisclosed number of mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles, an undisclosed number of multiple launch rocket systems (MLRSs) and 201 M109A5 self-propelled howitzers.

Since 1987, Egypt has assembled more than 1,100 M1A1 Abrams battle tanks under a co-production programme with the United States, by far the largest number of tanks in service.

"Combined with the 1,700 older ... M60 tanks, and various remaining Soviet supplied models, Egypt possesses at least 4,000 main battle tanks, far and away the largest such fleet in the region," according to a February 2019 report published by the Carnegie Middle East Centre.

The Egyptian air force also stands head and shoulders above regional competitors. Its array of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft gives it an advantage in the vital matters of combat and transport.

The force, according to a recent list, has 46 AH-64D Apache helicopters, 21 C-130 transport aircraft, 218 F-16 fighters, seven E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft and 19 CH-47 Chinook helicopters.

Egypt, which controls the Suez Canal and plays a vital role in securing commercial shipping and maritime navigation in regional waters, has significant naval forces in both the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

It has boosted its naval power in recent years, inaugurating the Berenice Military Base on the Red Sea coast near Aswan in January 2020, Egypt Today reported.

Egypt's navy has four Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates, four MK III missile craft and two Osprey-class minehunters.

There is also an active exchange program between Egypt and the United States, which regularly engage in multilateral military training exercises in Egypt and across the region.

Foremost among these is the Bright Star series of military maneuvers, the first of which -- Bright Star 81 -- took place in 1980 (fiscal year 1981).

The annual exercise grew in scale, and by 1983, the increasing number of troops involved necessitated holding it every two years, rather than annually.

In 1985, the Egyptian and US air forces joined the drill, and the two nations' navies and special forces joined the exercise in 1987.

Counter-terrorism collaboration

The United States also assists Egypt's counter-terrorism efforts by providing training, equipment and other assistance to its law enforcement agencies, as well as to the Egyptian Ministry of Defense.

Egyptian forces have been fighting extremists loyal to the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) who have waged a years-long insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt and the United States on March 20 concluded a joint military exercise in Egypt, "SOF02," involving units from the Egyptian paratroopers, Thunderbolt Forces commandos and naval special forces and from US special forces, Egypt's military said.

Security forces received training on storming a terrorist hotspot within a residential area, freeing hostages, arresting terrorist elements and taking measures to confront improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Meeting with Egyptian Minister of Defence Mohamed Zaki at the Pentagon in July 2019, then-US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said the United States sought to expand counter-terrorism co-operation with Egypt.

He noted that Egypt is uniquely positioned as an Arab country in Africa and the Middle East to spread "the culture of peace" as a member of both the Arab League and the African Union.

In December 2022, Egypt took the helm of Combined Maritime Forces Task Force 153 (CTF 153), which focuses on international maritime security and capacity building efforts in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb and Gulf of Aden.

In September 2022, senior delegations from the Pentagon and the Egyptian Ministry of Defense met for the 33rd US-Egypt Military Co-operation Committee at the Pentagon.

The delegations exchanged views on regional threats and US and Egyptian security priorities, discussing US-Egypt interoperability, defense planning and continued co-ordination on border security and counter-terrorism efforts.