The Egyptian Navy has taken delivery of its second and final Mistral class landing helicopter dock, Anwar el-Sadat, while DCNS has floated the first of four Gowind corvettes for Egypt.
The Anwar el-Sadat (L 1020) was handed over to the Egyptian Navy in Saint Nazaire, France, on 16 September in a ceremony attended by Egyptian Navy Chief of Staff Osama Rabie, the chairman and CEO of DCNS, Hervé Guillou, and the president of STX France, Laurent Castaing, together with senior French and Egyptian officials.
It departed St Nazaire on 21 September for Egypt and en route is scheduled to take part in a joint exercise with the French Navy in Toulon. Arrival in Alexandria is scheduled for 6 October.
Shipbuilder DCNS said 180 sailors have been training on the vessel since June in conjunction with DCNS, STX France and Defense Conseil International. In all, close to 400 Egyptian sailors will have received training in this way.
On 10 October 2015, DCNS signed a contract with the Ministry of Defence of the Arab Republic of Egypt for the supply of two Mistral-class Landing Helicopter Dock vessels (LHDs). The delivery of the first of these two helicopter carriers, the LHD Gamal Abdel Nasser (L 1010) took place on 2 June 2016.
By 2020, DCNS will have supplied seven combat vessels to Egypt. In July 2014 Egypt ordered four Gowind corvettes, and in August 2015 received the FREMM multi-mission frigate Tahya Misr. Alexandria shipyards is building three of the four Gowind corvettes acquired in 2014 – work on the first began at the beginning of this year.
The Gowind built by DCNS was floated out of its assembly hall at the Lorient shipyard on 17 September. The vessel, Elfateh, is scheduled for delivery next year.
