#Maadi

In part 1 of this article, I talked about the history of Egyptian AKs, often called “Maadi” or “Misr”. In the second part of the article, I want to talk about the issues I experienced with Maadi AKs and the current developments related to Egyptian AK production.

If you’ve ever seen a cult classic movie “Red Dawn” (obviously I am talking about the 1984 version, not the 2012 remake), you probably remember that all Soviet soldiers were equipped with authentic Kalashnikov rifles. But the guns they were using were not, in fact, Soviet, they were Egyptian AKs. 16 years ago TFB published a post about it when one of the original “Red Dawn AKs” was sold at an auction.

The Egyptian Maadi, specifically the Steyr imported ARM, has always been one of the better examples of imported AKM pattern rifles. These rifles are built on Russian-made tooling by Russian-trained technicians and workers. Back in the ’80s and ’90s, it was as close as you could get to an actual Russian-made AKM. Unfortunately, only a couple thousand of the fixed stock model ARM and even less (some say only 50) of the “Crutch” style folding stock models were imported.

Historically, throughout the 20th century, Egypt had a strong and extensive firearms industry. Hakim and Rasheed rifles, Helwan pistol, Egyptian-made AKs called Maadi or MISR were used domestically and exported throughout the world. But at the beginning of the 21 century, most service weapons in Egypt, especially with the Ministry of Interior, are imported, which means that political turmoils can easily compromise procurement and supply of spare parts for the currently issued firearms. To decrease the country’s military dependence on exports, the Egyptian Military Factory is slowly trying to modernize the firearms they currently manufacture. Two examples of such efforts are the “upgraded 7.62x39mm automatic assault rifle” presented at EDEX-2022 in Cairo and World Defense Show in Riyadh.

This Egyptian Steyr Maadi AKM, which is being auctioned on Gun Broker, was one of the prop AKs from Red Dawn.