CZ Launching Handgun & Rifle Manufacturing in Egypt -The Firearm Blog

According to a recently published interview with the current director of Česká Zbrojovka in a Czech media platform, the small arms company is currently in the process of launching a small arms plant in Egypt. The director Lubomír Kovařík mentioned in the interview that the plant would be manufacturing both handguns and rifles. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to TFB readers as we reported on the possibility of this opportunity in December of 2017 with the use of 7.62x36mm CZ 807s in use by Egyptian Special Operations forces. Although not specifically mentioned, it is almost certain that the CZ 807 will be manufactured as the rifle Mr.Kovařík is talking about. That being the case, it appears that Beretta might have lost Egypt as a future defense customer for large-scale purchases. Previously Beretta 7.62x39mm ARX160s were in use throughout various units within the Egyptian Army. But with an entire manufacturing plant being built in the country, this has to mean a much larger use of the CZ 807 by Egyptian forces, most likely beyond the Special Operations component. The Egyptian infantry is still mostly armed with locally manufactured “Maidi” AKMs of either a folding stock (more like a folding strut) or fixed stock variety.

From the interview (Google translated, emphasis mine)-

What other armed forces use the weapons produced in Uherský Brod?

We continue to re-arm the armed forces of Slovakia, some of the African and Central American states, and last year we supplied weapons to Rwanda. There are thousands of weapons. As far as police forces are concerned, we are trying to re-assemble a part of the Mexican police, and we are going to have a large rearmament of the components of the Egyptian Interior Ministry that use our pistols. What amazes me that US Utah Highway Patrol, a typical highway police, uses our Scorpion guns. My goal is to penetrate the US armed forces and strengthen positions in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

At the same time, did you think your pistols would be manufactured abroad license, how did that happen?

Over the last few years, there has been an increasing demand for production and assembly to move at least partially to the state that then buys the weapons. This so-called transfer of pistol manufacturing and assembly technology already exists in Peru, where we have started to supply guns to the state-owned company, and it is still available on the market for armed forces. We are also launching a similar model in Egypt, where it is not only a pistol but also an assault rifle.

Also mentioned were handguns. In 2013 the Egyptian armed forces had a purchase order of 50,000 small arms and then followed by 130,000 handguns in 2014 by Law Enforcement. The majority appear to have been CZ 9x19mm NATO P-07 Duty handguns in addition to CZ 805s and Scorpion EVOs. With both a rifle and a handgun being license produced by CZ, it would appear that Egypt is going to have a pure fleet of CZ small arms at the small unit level. Sans machine guns of course.

An Egyptian Interior Ministry officer with a Scorpion EVO.