Moscow-on-the-Nile

SUPPLIES of concrete and timber suddenly began vanishing all over Egypt. Some roads were closed to civilian traffic, as trucks bearing shrouded hardware rumbled to guarded sites in nighttime runs. Huge transport planes thundered ceaselessly into Cairo's airport, disgorging men and equipment. These mysterious comings and goings a few months ago signaled a major expansion of the Soviet Union's presence in Egypt. Some diplomats compare it to the beginnings of the U.S. buildup in South Viet Nam in the mid-1960s.

Most observers in Cairo date the buildup from Gamal Abdel Nasser's secret three-day trip to the Soviet Union last January. At that time, Israeli aircraft were regularly making deep-penetration raids into Egyptian territory. Had the attacks continued, Nasser's political position could have been severely shaken, and this in turn could have jeopardized Moscow's massive investment in Egypt.

Alexandria to Aswan. The number of Russians in Egypt increased from 10,000 to 14,000 during the buildup. Of these, 4,000 are civilian technicians and their dependents: most of them serve as advisers on the huge Helwan steelworks just south of Cairo and the Aswan High Dam. which will be declared officially completed in ceremonies next month. The civilians live mainly in Cairo's Zamalek district in a community complete with its own school, social club and outdoor movie. Another 3,000 to 4,000 military advisers are assigned to the armed forces at every level of command from artillery crews at the Suez Canal to naval vessels in the Red Sea. "Today the Soviets are in on every decision." an observer commented recently. President Nasser himself boasted in Khartoum last month that "Soviets are serving with our units everywhere." At least a dozen Russian advisers have died in Israeli attacks. The major new elements of the Soviet presence:

-- As many as 100 MIG-21j interceptors, along with 70 to 100 Soviet pilots plus crewmen. The planes, with a longer range, better radar and a more effective fire-control system than earlier MIG-21s flown bv Eevotians. are based at Cairo West, Beni Suef, Aswan, Mansura and Inshahs. Only once, so far as is known, have they and Israeli pilots encountered one another; in Aoril, over Lake Qurun southwest of Ca;ro, Israelis suddenly discovered that the MIGs they were about to jump were being flown by Russian-speaking pilots. Both sides backed away and have steered clear ever since.

>SA3 pround-to-air missiles, manned by 3.500 to 5.000 Soviet technicians. Six sites already surround the harbor of Alexandria. Six other sites encircle Cairo, and four more are a short distance away at Cairo West, where Russian forces have established their headquarters in a for mer British base. Four clusters of SA-3s protect the Aswan High Dam, two more are believed to be at Baltim on the Mediterranean coast, and others are at the Russian bases at Mansura and Inshahs. The number of SA3 sites, each with eight missiles and 100 to 150 men, may eventually reach about 50.

Tight Security. The SA-3, similar to the U.S. Hawk missile but equipped with better radar, supplements the less sophisticated SA2, which never measured up to Soviet expectations. In North Viet Nam, where Moscow installed them to defend against U.S. planes, SA-2s worked successfully only three times in 6,800 firings. The Israelis lost just one Piper Cub to the SA-2s. By flying low, Israeli jets easily evaded the missiles. They also bombed about 20 of the sites out of existence.

Since the SA-3s' radar is incapable of tracking targets below 500 ft., Israeli pilots are said to be training to fly at 200 ft.--even at night. The Soviet answer is a new and reportedly highly effective defense system called ZSU234, which could be used to protect the SA3 sites against ground-hugging planes if the Israelis should eventually decide to attack them. The ZSU234 is a fourbarreled, 23-mm., radar-directed light antiaircraft weapon mounted to a tanklike tracked vehicle.

Because the SA3 is the Soviet Union's most recent operational ground-to-air missile (Egypt and East Germany are the only countries outside the Soviet Union in which it has been installed), security is still extremely tight. Not even Egyptian generals are allowed into the complexes without permission. Residents of the fashionable Cairo suburb of Mo-kattam are not permitted to bring guests home because some callers might be spies who would notice the nearby missile site's 65-ft. "Squat Eye" tower, so nicknamed by NATO. Similarly, the Mokattam Casino, from which the view was too clear, has been moved lock, stock and roulette table to the Nile Hilton Hotel, from which no missiles can be visible.

One indication of the growing friendship between the Soviet Union and Egypt--as well as the cost of that friendship--is the fact that trade between the two nations jumped 26.5% in 1969 and will increase again this year. In addition to cotton, yarn and rice, Egypt now sells the Russians a wide variety of other products. Moscow stores this year, for example, are stocking Egyptian rum and brandy as well as large, expensive Egyptian furniture that barely fits into many Moscow apartments.

Low Silhouette. Russian troops in Egypt are under the control of Soviet Ambassador to Cairo Sergei Vinogradov, who acts as a kind of proconsul for the Kremlin with somewhat the same role and prestige as U.S. Ambassador to Saigon Ellsworth Bunker. The Soviet military men, as well as the civilians, generally try to maintain an extremely low silhouette. Missile technicians live in self-contained tent communities. "An SA3 site," says a Western diplomat, "comes with cooks, bottle washers, the lot." Occasionally an Egyptian might glimpse a busload of Russians visiting the pyramids, or see a group of beefy, fair-skinned workers at Agomy beach west of Alexandria. To one recent British visitor, however, Cairo is beginning to look like Moscow-on-the-Nile. "My God," he complained, "even the shopkeepers assume you speak Russian." At the Gezira Sporting Club, once a famous British watering spot, he observed a number of Russians as well as East Germans and Czechs "lying around the pool reading Pravda."

As in many remote places to which they have been sent, the Russians tend to stick to themselves. "They won't even say hello in the elevator," an Egyptian commented recently. Said another: "The educated people don't like the Russians because they wonder how we are ever going to get them out of the country. It will be just as hard to get rid of them as it was the British. The simple people are suspicious of them because Communists don't believe in God, and there's nothing worse than that."

Such complaints are more than offset, however, by the knowledge that the SA3 missiles have caused the Israelis to suspend their deep-penetration raids for fear of direct confrontation with the Soviets. Egyptian morale, in fact, is at its highest point in months. "The uncertainty of the future still gnaws at everybody," a Cairo businessman said last week, "but at least we know that Cairo won't be bombed." The piles of sandbags have disappeared from the Nile bridges, blue dimout paint has been scraped off windows and automobile headlights, and Suleyman Pasha Square is bathed in new floodlights.

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