Egyptian Navy raised flag on Al-Fateh corvette, first of GOWIND project, in France’s Lorient on Friday, 22th Sept, according to Al-Ahram.
Gowind® 2500 programme includes manufacturing of 4 corvettes. Al-Fateh is the first of four. Deal has been signed by Egyptian Navy with France’s renowned shipbuilder Naval Group (Ex-DNCS), in 2014. Upon deal, next 3 of corvettes will be built in Egypt, at Alexandria’s Al-Tersana Company. Furthermore, deal embraces technology transfer and training services, deliver of technical data and essential components.
The #Gowind corvette is delivered only 3 years after the contract signature ⏩ pic.twitter.com/WmK2TNJsXe
— Naval Group (@navalgroup) September 22, 2017
According to news, Commander in Chief of Navy, Vice-Admiral Khaled and Head of the Naval Group, Mr. Guillou gave a speech at flag raising ceremony. Vice-Admiral Khaled said, “We witness today a historic moment in the history of our naval force, and a new episode in developing it, both in quantity and quality, so that it will be among the ranks of the top naval forces in the world.” He added that the corvette would help “better achieve Egypt’s total control of its coasts as well as its regional and commercial waters.”
Head of the Naval Group, Mr. Guillou said “The GOWIND corvette is the latest generation of vessels and incorporates panoramic sensors, a high combat system, as well as an operational centre with associated technical rooms,”.
Overall, Egyptian Navy’s ambitions to be in Top Naval Forces League draw attention. It continues to modernise its surface fleet with new deals. Considering the new platforms such as FREMM multi-mission frigate (Tahya Misr) and two Mistral Class LHDs (Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar El-Sadat) it will be not wrong to say that Egyptian Navy wants to step into a higher class.
The Gowind® 2500 Corvette
The Gowind® 2500 corvette has stealth capabilities. It incorporates the SETIS combat system, which is also in service with FREMM frigate. It is armed with an OTO Melara 76mm main gun, two Nexter Narwhal 20mm cannons, a vertical launch system (VLS) for 16 VL Mica surface-to-air missiles, eight MBDA MM40 Exocet anti-ship missile launchers and two triple torpedo launchers. The Corvette is powered by combined diesel and electric propulsion system.
References
1- http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/277577/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt%E2%80%99s-navy-raises-flag-on-new-AlFateh-corvette-i.aspx
2- http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/gowind-2500-corvette
3- https://www.naval-group.com/en/news/dcns-starts-the-construction-of-the-first-gowind-2500-corvette-for-the-egyptian-navy/
Egypt has previously received a FREMM frigate (Tahya Misr (FFG1001)) and two Mistral-class landing helicopter docks (LHD) (Gamal Abdel Nasser (L1010), Anwar El Sadat (L1020)) from the French shipbuilder. The Egyptian Navy received the second Type 209 diesel-electric submarines, built upon Cairo’s request by Germany under a contract on the delivery of four submarines. The Egyptian Navy is stronger than ever before.
Will the rapid development of the Egyptian Navy change the power balances in the Eastern Mediterranean?
And does this situation disturb the State of Israel?