For a military that claims to have the individual’s wellbeing, education, and equipment as its top priority there is often a massive gap between what the Armed Forces says and what it does.

We know the resources to support a medical evacuation system similar to that in Afghanistan or Iraq are likely way beyond Egypt. The cost of operating a sophisticated Forward Aeromedical Evacuation is both financially and logistically taxing. This is an argument we are willing to concede.

However, this does not explain why there can not be a democratisation of knowledge and equipment from the Medical Corps across all arms. Or why Egyptian forces stationed in the Sinai can not plan casualty evacuations of any kind, something that has become a standard operational procedure for well equipped and trained forces during any type of operation.