Mr Morsi replaced long-serving defence minister, Field-Marshal Muhammad Hussein Tantawi, with a former intelligence chief, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
While demonstrations in Egypt escalated there was frequent contact between the secretary of defence, Robert Gates, and his Egyptian counterpart, Field-Marshal Muhammad Tantawi.
ECONOMIST: Military-to-military relationships: The ties that bind | The
Field-Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has continued to pull the strings in Egypt, was named defence minister.
After Hosni Mubarak fell in February, Egyptians widely if reluctantly accepted that a bunch of generals, led by Mr Mubarak's long-serving 76-year-old defence minister, Field-Marshal Muhammad Hussein Tantawi, should take charge while steering the state towards democracy.
Even more troubling for Israel, Field-Marshal Muhammad Tantawi, Egypt's top man for the time being, and others in Egypt's interim military government were unavailable to take calls from Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, until Barack Obama intervened directly with them.
On September 10th Mr Obama and his defence secretary, Leon Panetta, found themselves in frantic phone calls with Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and Field-Marshal Muhammad Hussein Tantawi, the chairman of Egypt's governing council, striving to save Israel's staff in Cairo from a mob that had invaded its embassy.
The ruling military - the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) - headed by Field Marshal Tantawi, has been under pressure to bring forward the election date to May.
The re-appointment of Field Marshal Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf), is in line with an interim constitutional declaration issued after June's presidential election run-off.
In August, the president moved decisively against the military leadership, sending into retirement Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi -- who, as Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, had acted as the country's de facto ruler in the wake of Mubarak's ouster and prior to Morsy's election.
It was announced earlier that a career army officer, Gen Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, would replace Field Marshal Tantawi as both armed forces chief and defence minister.
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