Ismail would then take on staff roles, starting as deputy Military attaché to Washington in 1951. After the July 1952 Revolution which established the republic and independence from Britain, he was appointed as Director of the Bureau of the Commander in Chief, Abdel Hakim Amer, where between 1953 and 1960 he was entrusted with rebuilding a post-colonial military, leading secret delegations to the Soviet Union, the more famous of which was the 1955 Egyptian-Czechoslovak arms deal. Ismail also liaised with Syrian military leaders during the Tripartite Aggression against Egypt in 1956, and facilitated the merger of Syrian and Egyptian troops in the lead up to the formation between them of the United Arab Republic in 1958.