Egypt has officially asked to extend its production license for M1A1 battle tanks by 100 to a total of 755. The original license for 555 was completed in 1998, after which the Egyptian tank factory produced 50 M88A2 Hercules recovery vehicles. The first of two expected additional runs of 100 tanks was begun in 2000 and this batch will complete the originally expected number of tanks. Egypt buys the cannon and machineguns for the tanks directly from the US, and has officially asked to buy the 100 M256 tank cannons needed for the third and final batch.--Stephen V Cole