Generals, Actors, and Loyalists
Egypt Security Sector Report
This week’s issue captures the full theater of Sisi’s rule—from the UN electing Egypt to the Human Rights Council even as prisons overflow, to a Senate stacked with generals, businessmen, and an actor who once played the president. I also cover a deadly blast inside the Huckstep military zone, a Pentagon plan to modernize Egypt’s combat training systems, and US court rulings exposing Cairo’s ambiguous role in deportations. Plus: the Air Force’s Jiryan megaproject launches a new investment zone, fuel prices soar again, and the regime brands migrating athletes as “human trafficking” victims—a portrait of repression, denial, and spectacle in Sisi’s Second Republic.
The Summit, the Spectacle, and the Silence
🎧 A week after the Sharm el-Sheikh summit promised a new chapter for Gaza, the ceasefire is already fraying, Israeli strikes have resumed, and Egypt’s self-styled diplomacy is being tested on every front. In this episode, I unpack the spectacle surrounding Trump’s return to Middle East theatrics, the contradictions in Cairo’s role as both mediator and …
📁 Pentagon Outlines Ambitious Modernization of Egypt’s Combat Training Center
The US Army’s Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation (PEO STRI) has issued a sources sought notice to identify contractors capable of executing a sweeping modernization of Egypt’s Armed Forces Combat Training Center 3 (AFCTC-3). The project—part of a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program—aims to replace and upgrade nearly every component of the brigade-level training facility, first fielded in 2015 and now described as obsolete.
The planned overhaul covers fixed-site and mobile elements, including servers, data centers, weapons engagement simulation systems, field instrumentation, and after-action review tools. The new AFCTC-3 would operate both as a permanent installation and as a fully deployable expeditionary system capable of supporting live, virtual, and constructive combat exercises in austere environments. The US Army expects the modernization to enhance interoperability with American and allied forces.
The prospective five-year contract envisions a 36-month development and installation phase followed by two years of in-country contractor logistics support, to be financed by Egypt under FMS procedures.