Operation Musketeer's reduced force and political objective

An earlier concept called for an armoured division and the destruction of the Egyptian Army, while the smaller operation actually chosen pursued a political collapse. The revised design called first for air superiority, then a ten-day air and psychological campaign directed nominally at the Egyptian economy, followed by airborne and seaborne landings in the canal zone. The practical purpose of the middle phase appears to have been finding and destroying military resistance before troops went ashore. Planners hoped the Egyptian Army would remove Nasser, sparing Anglo-French forces from a full conquest. British and French cabinets approved the revised plan while discussions with the United States, Egypt, and Israel continued. References to NATO and UN provisions formed part of the political debate over intervention.