The US is to resume the production of diesel-electric submarines for the first time in decades. Egypt wants to buy two Dutch-designed Moray-class advanced diesel-electric subs, but wanted to get them under the US military aid program. For this to happen, the subs will have to be built in the US, and these two will be built at the Ingalls Pascagoula shipyard in Mississippi. A formal contract will be signed early next year, with delivery of the subs to occur in 2006 and 2008. Egypt will need the subs as soon as it can get them to replace ancient Russian-built Romeo-class boats, which are expensive to maintain and grossly outdated. Ingalls had previously been involved in a deal to offer the Egyptians German Type-209s built in the US, but the deal never came together.--Stephen V Cole