The U.S. State Department adjusted the estimated cost for the sale of 60,500 tank rounds to Egypt to $201 million, more than double the $99 million value placed on the proposed sale in September.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a Tuesday, November 27 release that the State Department had approved the sale of 46,000 practice rounds, 10,000 discarding sabot armor-piercing rounds and 4,500 Insensitive Munitions High Explosive with Tracer (IM HE-T) rounds for an estimated cost of $201 million.

“This notification supersedes and replaces Transmittal No. 18-05 delivered to Congress on September 17, 2018. The descriptions and quantities of all defense articles and services are unchanged. The dollar values are updated with this new transmittal,” the DSCA said.

A State Department official speaking on background told The Defense Post they “would only note that the new transmission corrects an error in the initial one.”

The prime contractor is General Dynamics.

The 120 mm tank rounds are for Egypt’s M1A1 Abrams main battle tank fleet. Egypt has been a co-producer of the Abrams since the 1980s, and has been producing similar ammunition under a co-production agreement for around 15 years.

The IM HE-T rounds, will be used in support of the Egyptian Army’s ongoing operations against Islamic State in the Sinai.

The majority of rounds in the proposed sale – M831A1 Target Practice – Tracer and M865 Target Practice, Cone Stabilized, Discarding Sabot – are more-standard rounds, while the 10,000 M829 Kinetic Energy-Tungsten (KE-W) Armor-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot with Tracer (APFSDS-T) rounds are advanced munitions specifically designed for the Abrams M1A1 and M1A2 tanks’ 120mm M256 main gun.

The new munitions will replace Egypt’s older model 120MM KE-W, KE-W Al, and KE-W A2 ammunition.