Epilogue: North Sinai and the Sinai Alliance – 1990 to Present
North Sinai, along with its Sinai Alliance partners, Egypt and Jordan, entered the 1990s on an optimistic note. The economies of all three nations were generally strong and stable and all three were attracting considerable foreign attention from investors and tourists alike. The world was paying attention to the three unlikely partners and most of the world liked what it saw.
International conferences and exhibitions of all sorts started to become commonplace in major centres throughout the three countries and many held the alliance in high regard as an example of what could be accomplished when old animosities were consigned to the past.
The Arab League, while still cold to the idea of the Sinai Alliance, remained neutral towards it and did nothing to provoke unrest within it. Indeed, the Arab League had other issues to contend with as the early 90s brought with them the Gulf War against Iraq.
While the three Sinai Alliance nations were not direct combatants in the war, they did support Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait and provided critical logistics and transport services to coalition forces directly involved in the fighting. Additionally, Jordan provided basing for a RAF strike wing within reach of western Iraq at a base near Ar-Ruwayshid. The base was also home to a wing of Jordanian Tornado ADVs specifically tasked with the air defence of the eastern portion of Jordan’s Al Mafraq region. In addition to the Tornados, Al Mafraq’s regional air defences included a sizable contingient of air defence optimised Canaan vehicles with a standard compliment of four domestically developed Akrab SAM missiles each.
The conflict in the Persian Gulf carried on for four years and culminated in the successful capture of Saddam Hussein by British SAS in late July of 1994 and the consequent collapse of the remainder of his government.
While they had not been directly involved in the combat aspect of the conflict, the Sinai Alliance nations were very much involved with the UN policing of Iraq in the aftermath of the conflict. All three countries spent the remainder of the 1990s assisting in the rebuilding of Iraq and it’s infrastructure. That assistance was a critical element in the Arab League taking a more accepting stance toward the Sinai Alliance.
In the years following the Persian Gulf War, the three nations have seen an increase in business and investment from several Arab League nations.
Upper Israel continues to be a perpetual detractor of North Sinai and officially refuses to recognise it as an independent state. In all official documentation generated by Upper Israel, North Sinai is simply referred to as “Lower Israel”. There is little overt animosity between the two beyond such name calling; while North Sinai has prospered and grown strong, Upper Israel has progressed little since the end of the hostilities that pulled Israel apart and has inadequate resources to up the ante against it’s young southern neighbour. Generally speaking, North Sinai considers itself happily divorced from the old Israel that was run from the north and cared so little about the needs of the south and the bulk of the world is on North Sinai’s side.
Embraer continues to be a major engine to the North Sinai and Egyptian industrial bases. A second aviation manufacturer, AeroSinai, was established in 1990; while their main line of business is sports and general aviation, which do not conflict heavily with Embraer’s business, they did create a concept for an indigenous combat aircraft in 1994.
The AeroSinai ICA concept did get the aviation world’s attention, particularly when it was presented as a full scale mock up at the Sinai AeroExpo event at Elat in 1996. Most people commented that it looked like a mix of a Sepecat Jaguar and Mirage F.1 with a bit of Panavia Tornado mixed in. The ICA generated only lukewarm interest and was ultimately cancelled at the mock up stage. AeroSinai subsequently returned to their sport and GA business, but their mock up had not been forgotten.
In the mid 2000s, with Embraer fully concentrating on meeting their civil and military aircraft orders, AeroSinai was granted the license for Eurofighter Typhoon production and overhaul facilities for the NSAS, Egyptian and Jordanian fleets of the type.
AeroSinai did not disappoint with their production and maintenance of the Typhoon. Largely this was due to the fact that much of the company’s executive management were former IAI, Elbit, Rafael and Elta people who had been made redundant as Embraer took over larger chunks of the old Israel’s aviation industry. Behind the main business of sport and GA, AeroSinai did possess the talent pool to make fully combat capable aircraft.
AeroSinai has since expanded from the Typhoon and taken over deep maintenance and overhaul duties for the three nations’ Tornado fleets as well.
The Canaan IFV, which was North Sinai’s first, and still best known military export, continues to impress and win new customers in its more advanced forms. Today, beyond it’s IFV role, it exists in air defence, APC and armoured medevac variants.
Sinai Defence Systems, like AeroSinai, is a relatively young company built from the pieces of former Israeli companies. Former members of fallen Israeli companies created SDS; as a result, what the new company lacked in market presence, it more than made up for in experienced leadership. This showed clearly in SDS’ long lived flagship product, the Canaan.
Initially intended to be an IFV offshoot of the Leopard 2 MBT, the Canaan became a worldwide best selling vehicle that served as a very adaptable basis for a variety of weapons platforms.
The base vehicle was a shortened Leopard 2 with a front mounted engine. The width of the Leopard was kept, but a set of road wheels was removed. The earliest versions were not expected to see wide service or be much more than IFVs, as such, they were not particularly adaptable or flexible. However, they were well liked and sold well enough to justify some rethinking of the design.
The Canaan Mk.III incorporated a good deal more modular design to the vehicle, which allowed the top deck to be easily adapted to the turret and armament preferences of a variety of operators. It was through the Mk.III that the Canaan truly started to come of age and started attracting sales at a global level.
It was also at the time of the Mk.III that SDS began a long association with the Italian arms manufacturer, Oto Melara. The relationship continues today and is so strong that Oto Melara turrets and guns are factory standard equipment on Canaans unless otherwise is specified by the purchaser. With a few notable exceptions, such as Germany, most European users of the Canaan have ordered it as factory standard.
One of the more notable accomplishments of the Canaan is its near complete replacement of M-113 based vehicles in most places they served. The Canaan has a much better balance of size to power than the M-113 and this has been particularly appreciated in the heavily armed IFV and AA variants.
There are three main marks of Canaan in service today:
Mk.III:
Built to be the basis of IFV and APC vehicles, the Mk.III is well armoured, powerful and adaptable to be fitted with most western developed turret designs and gun combinations.
The Mk.III was built in huge numbers and is available in second hand refurbished form from SDS with an Oto Melara Hitfist 25-30 turret/gun combination as standard.
Mk.V:
A lightened version designed for medivac, communications, radar and reconnaissance duties, the Mk.V is not a commonly seen variant and was built in relatively small numbers. Most nations who took the Mk.III opted for wheeled vehicles in the roles the Mk.V was intended for as they were seen as more mobile and cost effective in those roles than an armour based vehicle would be.
Mk.VI:
The Mk.VI hull was optimised for the heavier turrets and weapons systems of the anti-aircraft role. The Mk. VI was more popular than the Mk.V and, like the Mk.III, had modular top decking to make it adaptable to a variety of systems.
The Mk.VI existed in two forms; a baseline VI with AA gun armament and a VI R with a strengthened suspension for missile based AA systems.
While the factory standard Mk.VI is equipped with an Oto Melara SIDAM 25 system, the Mk. VI R represents a rare departure from the SDS/Oto Melara partnership. The Mk. VI R takes the Akrab missile system developed by Jordanian Tactical Dynamics as its factory standard gear.
The JTD Akrab, or Scorpion, system is seen as roughly on par with the Strela 10 in range but somewhat superior in other aspects.
The Mk. IV designation was given to a failed recovery vehicle version. It was limited in both strength and weight for the role and abandoned in favour of a Leopard 2 based type.
A wide range of variations has been seen on the Canaan, some of the more notable variations are:
Mk. III D:
German army variant, which features a KUKA E4/Mauser 30mm turret and gun combination.
Mk. V P:
Specialised civil variant with lightened armour for police work.
Mk. VI FK:
Specialised civil variant for rescue and fire fighting duties.
Mk. VI CR:
Canadian army variant fitted with Oerlikon-Contraves ADATS turret and associated equipment.
Currently, the North Sinai Armed Services are considered a very well equipped and capable force on all levels.
Beyond the Leopard 2 and Canaan based armour, NSAS land element uses a wide array of Steyr and OAF wheeled vehicles for utility, transport and infantry purposes. Additionally, NSAS has recently taken on the Dingo 2 vehicle.
NSAS air elements are also well equipped.
All pilots start at Beersheba with the AeroSinai two place Hoopoe basic piston trainer and then move on to the Tucano before graduating to the MB-339. Helicopter training is done at Elat with AS.350s
The standard utility helicopter in NSAS is the EC-145. Heavier work is done with Super Pumas and second hand Chinooks. Recently, NSAS signed into a deal for a small fleet of Eurocopter Tigre gunships.
Tactical transport is a mixed fleet of C-130J and C-27 Spartan aircraft. Light transport and VIP work is carried out by a variety of Embraer aircraft.
The NSAS tactical aircraft fleet consists of the AMX, Tornado IDS and ADV and, most recently, the Eurofighter Typhoon. It has been announced that the Tornado force will be downsized over the next few years.
Coastal patrol and surveillance was carried out with a unit of second hand Italian Breguet Atlantic aircraft until they were retired in 2005 in favour of the Embraer P-99.
The NSAS maritime element was the smallest of the three service branches and was almost completely reserve in nature as the Egyptian navy carries defensive responsibilities for Sinai Alliance waters in the Mediterranean and around the Sinai Peninsula. In 1995 NSAS maritime was reorganised into the North Sinai Coast Guard and operate exclusively in the SAR role with a small fleet of surface ships and Puma helicopters.
There was brief talk of replacing the NSCG Pumas with Merlins, but the very expensive purchases of the Tigre gunships and Typhoon fighters effectively ended any further talk of Merlins for either NSCG or NSAS in general; the Pumas still had life in them and were popular.
Under Sinai Alliance arrangements, North Sinai, Egypt and Jordan share a pool of Embraer R-99 AEW aircraft.
Today North Sinai and its Sinai Alliance partners remain very active in world affairs and all three have seen the standard of living within their borders steadily rise as a result.
North Sinai has not only become the “World’s Meeting Place” as it often markets itself, but it has also, in its way, become a realisation of the “New Israel” concept from the 1970s. Judaism is still the religion of majority in North Sinai, however, Islam and Christianity exist alongside it with little to no friction; this is due largely to the state’s rather overt discouragement of hard line practice of any religion by the populace.