The real reason why America sends so much military equipment to Egypt may have more to do with American industry than geopolitical demand.

Julia Simon of NPR reports that experts see no need for many of the hundreds of fighter jets and thousands of tanks that the U.S. has sent Egypt since the late '80s.

"There's no conceivable scenario in which they'd need all those tanks short of an alien invasion," Shana Marshall of the Institute of Middle East Studies at George Washington University told NPR.

So why does the U.S. keep sending tanks and jets? Simon points to the military-industrial complex:

Every year, the U.S. Congress appropriates more than $1 billion in military aid to Egypt. But that money never gets to Egypt. It goes to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, then to a trust fund at the Treasury and, finally, out to U.S. military contractors that make the tanks and fighter jets that ultimately get sent to Egypt.

Simon reports that the U.S. has sent more than 1,000 M1A1 Abrams — valued at about $4 billion — to Egypt since the late 80s, and at least 200 have never been used.

She adds that s ince 1980 the U.S. has sent 221 F-16 fighter jets — valued at $8 billion — despite U.S. military advisers in Cairo counseling against more acquisitions for years.

Nevertheless, America will continue the bonanza

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/egypt-cannot-possibly-us-made-181943986.html