Word: egyptian
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Israeli base. Apparently carried by French-built Super Ferlon helicopters, a commando force landed in the dead of night, lobbed several 122-mm. mortar shells at the base and left without a casualty. The Israelis caused no major damage, but again reminded Nasser that they can strike almost any Egyptian target with terrifying impunity...
...Arab armies also played a major role in starting the 1967 war-and thus in closing the Suez Canal, the only practical Soviet naval route to the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. The 1967 disaster did, however, produce one advantage for Moscow: the intensive retraining needed by the shattered Egyptian forces enabled the Soviets to penetrate them with instructors, down to battalion and squadron level...
These Soviet instructors have no operational control, but their key positions provide Moscow with daily intelligence on Egyptian military movements and preparedness-which Russia disastrously miscalculated in 1967. Egyptian officers complain that their Russian advisers are aloof and overbearing, work them too hard, and do not teach enough mobile warfare. According to the official slogan, Egyptian-Soviet friendship is "loftier than the Aswan Dam and more solid than the Pyramids." In fact, the relationship is pragmatic rather than cordial. Even during construction at Aswan where 3,000 Soviet engineers lived and worked shoulder to shoulder with Egyptians, few friendships developed...
...succeed in substantially improving Arab military capability. As the Arabs improve under Russian tutelage, however, they will grow increasingly impatient to tackle the Israelis once more-and invite another humiliation. As one Russian military adviser recently told an East European ambassador in Cairo, it will take "a generation" for Egyptian military skills to exceed Israel's. Whether the Egyptians or their brethren in other Arab lands will want to wait that long is, to say the least, questionable...
Meticulous Maintenance. The Israelis may not have a free hand always, but they certainly have the upper hand now. In the Six-Day War, the Israeli air force virtually determined the outcome by swiftly destroying 393 Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi planes on the ground. They shot down another 59 Arab craft in dogfights. All told, the Israelis lost only 36 planes, most to ground fire. Today, the Israelis have about 300 French-and American-built combat planes, against about 800 Soviet-supplied MIGs and Sukhois. But Israel has more combat-ready pilots and, with meticulous maintenance, always enough jets...