Where west and east meet: Egyptian firm debuts mixed C5ISR system

IDEX 2023 — At an international defense expo in Abu Dhabi, an Egyptian firm debuted a locally made C5ISR system that it says can interoperate with both western and easter defense systems – a critical capability for an Egyptian military stocked with platforms from around the world.

The firm, ACME SAICO, Integrated Engineering Systems, advertised the C5ISR (command, control, communications, computer, cyber, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance) system for the first time internationally at the AOI (Arab Organization for Industrialization) stand just next to the Egyptian Ministry of Military Production here at IDEX 2023.

“C5ISR can deal with hybrid defense systems from different countries and following different protocols,” the head of the company’s Electronic Industries Division, Ziad Badawi, told Breaking Defense.

Since the 1970s, Cairo has been struggling with coordinating the operations of defense systems from different origins, whether it’s aircraft, air defense systems, naval systems or others.

“Egypt operates air defense radars [of] US, Chinese, Ukrainian, Russian and British origins, so we have been trying to collect the data from these sources in one system for operational efficiency,” Badawi said.