The Egyptian Navy will be getting another six 28 metre long Coastal Patrol Craft from Swiftships along with other equipment under a $22 million foreign military sale. The vessels will be co-produced in Egypt under a long-running arrangement.
Louisiana-based Swiftships has been awarded a $22 million contract to supply six patrol craft ‘material production kits’ to Egypt, along with Zodiac Rigid Inflatable Boats, Forward Looking Infrared Systems (FLIRs), personal computer packages, associated contractor engineering technical services, and provisioned item orders, the US Department of Defence announced on 26 April.
The foreign military sale (FMS) to Egypt includes options that, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of the contract to $26 357 027.
Work will be performed in Morgan City, Louisiana, and is expected to be completed by November 2023.
Swiftships describes its 28 metre patrol boat as having a top speed of 25 knots and a range of 900 nautical miles. It is powered by two diesel engines rated at 1 652 hp. Armament options include three 12.7 mm machineguns.
Egypt is a large user of Swiftships products. The company’s relationship with the Egyptian Navy began in the early 1990s, when it delivered two 54 metre Missile Retrievers and eight 28 metre Coastal Patrol Craft under a Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) contract. In 2006, Swiftships further delivered six 26 metre Fast Patrol Craft and in 2009, Swiftships delivered two 28 metre Coastal Patrol Craft and co-produced four kits, which were built in Egypt under Swiftships’ guidance.
Other sales included an order for four 28 metre long Coastal Patrol craft vessel kits in June 2016 – these were for local assembly in Alexandria. In May 2016, Swiftships was awarded a Direct Commercial Contract (DCC) for the construction of six additional 28 metre Coastal Patrol Craft to be co-produced in Egypt under Swiftships’ Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) model.
Swiftships in November 2014 received a contract to build six 35 metre long patrol boats at the Egyptian Ship Building and Repairs Company in Alexandria. These aluminium vessels have a range of 1 000 nautical miles, a normal speed of 30 knots and a complement of 12. Armament options include a 30 mm MSI Defense Systems or Oto Melara gun, two 12.7 mm machineguns and two 7.62 mm machineguns.
By combining foreign military sales and direct commercial sales contracts, Swiftships had by 2021 co-produced 26 of the 28 metre Coastal Patrol Craft models in Egypt. “The Egyptian Navy has further contracted Swiftships for 16 28 metre Coastal Patrol Craft to be co-produced by 2023 with options/total requirement for up to 50 excluding other African navies requirements,” according to Swiftships (Egypt and Swiftships have started co-market the 28 metre Coastal Patrol Craft for other the Middle East and African navies).
Swiftships has built around 30 boats for the Egyptian Navy including mine hunters, survey vessels, and both steel and aluminium patrol boats.
Egypt’s Coast Guard operates a smaller coastal patrol type, the Swift Protector. Swiftships describes these six boats as “the baby sisters of the 35 metre design,” as they were designed later than their larger brethren. The 26 metre Egyptian craft use waterjets that give them a top speed of 40 knots.
Specializing in the construction of small to medium-sized watercraft built of steel, aluminium, and fibreglass, Swiftships offers turn-key solutions to all branches of the US military and 52 foreign countries. Over the last 70 years, Swiftships has built more than 600 hulls.
