Cablegate: Egypt Signs Letter of Request for Border Equipment

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PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHEG #3359 3331207
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 291207Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7579
INFO RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 1602
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM 0917
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS CAIRO 003359

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PTER MASS MARR MOPS EG
SUBJECT: EGYPT SIGNS LETTER OF REQUEST FOR BORDER EQUIPMENT
AND TRAINING

REF: CAIRO 3308

1. (SBU) We have received a Letter of Request (LOR) from the
Egyptian Procurement Office, dated November 27, requesting
the $23 million in equipment and training recommended by the
Army Corps of Engineers-led survey team. The team, headed by
Dr. Jason McKenna of the Army Corps of Engineers, was in
Egypt earlier this month to assess the situation at the
Egypt-Gaza border and to make recommendations for tunnel
detection and network mapping equipment to increase the
security of that border.

2. (SBU) Based on the team's briefing at the MOD on November
21, Minister of Defense Tantawi instructed the Egyptian
Armaments Authority to submit an LOR according to the team's
recommendations. (A scanned version of the LOR has been
passed to NEA/ELA separately.)

3. (SBU) Equipment requested in the LOR includes the
following:
-Unmanned Group Vehicles (5)
-Install along 8 km affixed-emplacement, passive
seismic-acoustic tunnel activity detection system to identify
new construction and recurring use of existing tunnels, with
all required installation and three years maintenance and
spare parts;
-Handheld thermal imaging devices (50);
-Overwatch IR cameras (10);
-Land-Mobile Electromagnetic Induction (EMI) systems (ATV
Towed) (2);
-Truck-mounted drilling rig (3);
-Outfit a command and control center at a site designated by
MOD;
-Training;
-Sustainment training with TLA; and
-Follow on site survey support for the US Army Engineer R&D
team.

Next steps
----------
4. (SBU) OMC Egypt is working with McKenna and his team to
get the technical specifications for the equipment and parts
needed for the project. OMC and the Egyptian Armament
Authority will pursue a sole source waiver for some of the
equipment including, for example, small robots for use in the
tunnels, to speed the purchasing process. Assuming that they
can put the technical specs together in the next few days,
OMC hopes to review the request with the Egyptian Armaments
Authority and to submit it to USASAC by December 10. They
expect to submit the sole source waiver request at the same
time. The ultimate goal is to get a Letter of Offer and
Acceptance (LOA) back from USASAC by January 15. At that
point, the MOD would sign the LOA and begin implementation of
the procurement.
RICCIARDONE

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