EDEX 2025: Egypt’s Rad'a 300 Rocket System Unveiled as a Local Alternative to HIMARS Launchers.

Egypt introduced the Rad'a 300 multi-calibre rocket system during EDEX 2025 in New Cairo, giving the first detailed look at a tracked launcher built for 300 km class strikes. The system positions Egypt to control more of its deep fire capability and reduce reliance on foreign suppliers.

Egypt’s Ministry of Military Production revealed, during the opening day of EDEX 2025, the Rad'a 300, a tracked multi-calibre launcher that officials describe as the centerpiece of a new long-range artillery strategy. Images captured by Army Recognition reporters show the launcher in its first full public appearance, confirming a sealed pod architecture and a chassis lineage that traces back to the earlier RAAD 200 family. Egyptian officials at the show provided limited specifics, yet suggested the system is designed to deliver precision or saturation fires across a 300 km envelope.
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Rad'a 300 is Egypt’s new tracked multi-calibre launcher, delivering mobile long-range precision rocket and deep strike firepower (Picture source: Army Recognition Group).

Externally, the Rad'a 300 clearly builds on the tracked architecture previously used on the RAAD 200 122 mm launcher, with five road wheels per side, a welded armored cab for the crew, and a rear deck that now carries an enclosed, box-shaped launcher module instead of the open tube pack of its predecessor. The new system is a multi-calibre tracked launcher capable of engaging targets at 300 km and reaching about 40 km per hour on and off road, placing it in the same range class as ATACMS fired from U.S. HIMARS and cruise missiles launched from Brazil’s Astros II AV-TM 300.

The sealed launcher pack visible at EDEX strongly suggests a shift to factory-loaded pods rather than loose tubes, mirroring the podded architecture used by systems such as the Chinese AR1A 300 mm MLRS and the American M270 family. This design simplifies reloading, reduces crew exposure, and allows different pod types to be swapped on the same vehicle, from conventional 122 mm rockets for saturation fire to heavier 300 mm class precision rockets or quasi-ballistic missiles. Egyptian officials described the system as multi-calibre but did not disclose the specific rocket families on offer.

Rad'a 300 is best understood as the next step in an artillery evolution that began with the RAAD 200, a 30-tube 122 mm tracked launcher with a 45 km reach and rapid 30-round salvos. In parallel, Egypt explored foreign long-range systems, including Ukrainian 300 mm Vilkha-M launchers, Brazilian Astros II with its AV-TM 300 cruise missile, and Chinese 300 mm solutions such as AR1A and A300 rockets that reach roughly 285 km with high accuracy. Rada 300 appears to consolidate these lessons into a domestically controlled deep strike vehicle.

Operationally, a tracked launcher with a 300 km envelope allows Egyptian artillery to hold at risk air bases, logistics hubs, naval facilities, and command centers across broad swaths of the Eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea littorals without leaving national territory. Fired in volleys, it can perform classic area neutralisation, but with modern guided rockets, it can also prosecute individual high-value targets, much as HIMARS and Vilkha M have demonstrated in recent conflicts. The tracked chassis gives genuine off-road mobility in soft desert sand, matching the maneuver profile of Egypt’s mechanised brigades.

Rad'a 300 fits into a shoot-and-scoot concept. A battery can occupy pre-surveyed positions, receive target data through a digitised fire control network, launch pods of rockets within minutes, and then displace before counter battery sensors react. Given Egypt’s expanding drone portfolio, including new loitering munitions displayed at EDEX 2025, it is reasonable to expect drone-cued targeting and battle damage assessment to be integrated into the system’s doctrine.

For export partners, the industrial appeal is twofold. First, Rad'a 300 offers a sovereign alternative for states that cannot access U.S. or European precision rocket artillery but still want a 300 km class system. Second, the multi-calibre pod approach opens the door to licensed production of rockets from different suppliers or joint development of new warheads and guidance kits, similar to how Brazil and several Astros II customers have cooperated on specialised munitions. Egypt can offer technology transfer packages that bundle launcher assembly, pod integration, and local maintenance into regional partnerships.

A mid-sized power could employ Rad'a 300 as the backbone of a national fires brigade, with batteries assigned to theater commands to support counter-invasion operations, anti-access campaigns against hostile naval forces, or punitive strikes against cross-border missile sites. Deployed alongside shorter-range 122 mm launchers and 155 mm howitzers, the system extends the depth of fires rather than replacing legacy assets, giving commanders a layered artillery architecture from 20 km out to roughly 300 km.

In capability terms, Rad'a 300 will inevitably be measured against established competitors such as HIMARS, AR1A, Astros II, and Vilkha-M. HIMARS and Astros currently enjoy more mature precision rocket families and combat-proven digital ecosystems, while AR1A and A300 offer cost-competitive long-range salvos. Egypt’s system is unlikely to match its full missile portfolio at launch, but it gives Cairo sovereign control of a strategic weapon class and creates an indigenous platform that can evolve as new guided rockets are developed. For a country that has spent decades importing its heavy artillery, that shift in industrial leverage is important.