Egypt’s State Minister of Military Production, Mohamed al-Assar (photo), one of the country’s most prominent government and military figures, died on Monday. He was 74. Local media said he died after a long illness.

Al-Assar was a close ally of President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who promoted him last month to Honorary Lieutenant General.

General Al-Assar is a Military Commander, who has a long history in the affairs of armaments and military production in the Egyptian Armed Forces, where he held the position of Assistant Minister of Defense for Armaments Affairs from 2003 until 2015 when he was appointed Minister of Military Production.

Al-Assar was responsible for armaments with three consecutive Defense Ministers, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and the team’s first, Sedky Sobhi.

Al-Assar was born on June 3, 1946, graduated from the Military Technical College in 1967, and participated in the War of Attrition, then the October War as a component of the Military Engineers Corps. Al-Assar received a Bachelor of Engineering from the Military Technical College, a Master of Electrical Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering.

Al-Assar held all the major functions of the Air Defense Technical Insurance system, and worked as an assistant to the Chairman of the Arming Authority for Research, the head of the Armed Forces Armament Authority, the Assistant Minister of Defense for Arming Affairs, and the Adviser to the Minister of Defense for Technical Research and Foreign Relations.

He assumed membership in the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces in the period after the January 25, 2011 revolution, and was responsible for the file of foreign relations, in addition to contacting the media and political forces.

Al-Assar received many medals and medals, namely: Medal of the Republic of the second layer, medals of duty from the first class, medals of excellent service, the medal of long service and good example, the Medal of fighters in October 1973, and the Medal of Honor (rank of leader) from France.

As for the military production sector, al-Assar witnessed many accomplishments during the era of President al-Sisi over a period of 6 years, including 5 years in which he assumed responsibility for the Ministry.

The Ministry said in a recent statement that it possesses an integrated system that works through five axes: Industrial, Training, Research, IT Information Systems, and Construction.

The Ministry stated that the figures reflect the war production efforts and achievements over the past six years, as the total activity revenue in 2014-2015 reached about 4.2 billion pounds (US$ 262.6 million), while in 2019-2020 it reached 16.5 billion pounds (US$ 1 billion).

The Ministry includes 17 industrial companies, in addition to a center for information and computer systems, a center for scientific and technological excellence, a company for construction and engineering consulting, along with an integrated training sector, a medical center, and a sector for central fields that performs testing of weapons and ammunition produced in the companies of the Ministry.

The Ministry also updated 343 specifications to the latest international standards and specifications, and implemented 1,100 tests and calibration in various fields.

A plan to develop ammunition production is also being worked out in coordination with the authorities concerned with the armed forces to meet the needs of the armed forces over a period of three years, in addition to cooperating with research forces in the armed forces to develop and produce new systems of weapons, ammunition, equipment, and armored vehicles.

Another important accomplishment achieved during this period was the participation of the Ministry of Military Production with the Egyptian Armed Forces in preparing for the first edition of Egypt Defence Expo (EDEX) which took place in 2018.