Gomig-21
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Impressive ! How many abrams have been assembled so far in Egypt ?
A little under 1400 Abrams M1A1 so far. Not sure of the exact number that were assembled in Egypt since the first couple of hundred were delivered from the US is my guess, until the Helwan Factory 200 was made ready to assemble the tanks in house.
Are there more on the way ?
Hard to tell, but I don't think so and I believe we've seen the end of the line, hence the new contract with Russia with ToT for 500 T-90MS. It's still not clear if that entire 500 units are for domestic use or for selling them to other countries within Africa. I think the 200+/- or so T-55/62/80 in the inventory that are being used by the Republican Guard and various other specific entities might get some of those T-90MS' as replacement and the rest will be marketed? Remains to be seen.
Do you know if they're going to be upgraded in the near future ? (To M1A2 or superior version)
I don't think so TBH but one never knows. I think we're witnessing a radical shift in the US/Egyptian military cooperation on many fronts, between purchases through the military aid to exercising etc. A few of the upcoming events will indicate how that route will go. For example, in a recent interview with the American ambassador to Egypt (as well as a couple of other outlets mentioned similar things) is that there is a potentially substantial upgrade coming for the EAF's fleet of F-16s. The last significant upgrade to the F-16s was quite a while ago and it was basically taking the block 15s and 32s and bringing them up to block 40/42 status which is pretty good. That brought the entire fleet to a higher standard and made them all capable of laser targeting and carrying certain precision ammunition that they weren't capable of before because they simply were earlier models.
As you probably very well know, the F-16s need something like the Viper upgrade where all radars are upgraded to AESA ones like the Block-52s and of course, they all need a major BVR component that has been lacking for a while.
This might have been brought on by Sisi's brilliant maneuvers with you folks, and the Rafales and Mistrals and then of course, the Russian MiG-35s and now Sukhoi-35s. What happens from that specific deal with the Su-35s will determine the fate of US/Egyptian military cooperation for decades to come IMO. It will be very interesting to see what happens as a result of the Su-35 deal and if it affects the scheduled F-16 upgrade or not and the trickle-down effect from there to the Abrams and all other American systems. Should be very interesting.