Show of air power winds up manoeuvres

Press, 30 August 1986, Page 10

Show of air power winds up manoeuvres

NZPA-Reuter Cairo Joint United StatesEgyptian military manoeuvres ended yesterday with an aerial display, and the commander of the United States 6th Fleet said the five-day exercises had been terrific. Vice-Admiral Kendall Moranville said the air and sea manoeuvres were not planned against Libya, which called them provocative. “Absolutely not. It was structured to go against any force anywhere,” Admiral Moranville said at the air show in the Wadi Natrun desert, 120 km northwest oi Cairo.

The Egyptian Navy commander, Vice-Ad-miral All Tewfiq Gad, said the manoeuvres were planned for two years, were not directed against anyone, and had no political objectives. Co-operation between the two armies had been outstanding, Admiral Moranville said. “The cooperation level between the Egyptian military and the 6th Fleet is at an all-time high.” Tomcat, Intruder, and Corsair II jets from the aircraft-carrier U.S.S. Forrestal took part in the 90-minirte aerial display, which included bombing and strafing runs with “we in the Navy do not

drive tanks, but we can support the Egyptian Army with our aircraft,” Admiral Moranville later told senior Egyptian officers.

The exercises had been “terrific ... I would compare it with any exercise we do with any of our allies in the Mediterranean he said.

Eastern and Western bloc military attaches watched as the Egyptian Air Force used nine types of aircraft, including the Soviet-made MIGI7, the Chinese F 6 and F 7, the French Mirage, and the Americansupplied Phantom and Fighting Falcon fjghterbombers.