The third locally built Gowind class corvette and the fourth overall for Egypt has completed its first sea trials.
France’s Naval Group announced on 5 July that the vessel, built in Egypt by Alexandria Shipyard, had successfully completed her first sea trials. “This new milestone demonstrates once more the success of the transfer of technology and production and our strong industrial cooperation,” the company said.
The vessel, ENS ENS Al-Ismailia (986) was launched in late 2020.
The first locally built Gowind corvette, ENS Port Said, was delivered to the Egyptian Navy in January 2021 after being launched in September 2018. It is the first modern warship to be built in Egypt.
In 2014 the Egyptian Navy ordered four Gowind 2500 corvettes for around 1 billion euros from France’s Naval Group (formerly DCNS), with one, El Fateh, built in Lorient and the other three being built in Egypt. El Fateh was delivered to Egypt in October 2017. The ENS El Moez was launched in May 2019 and the ENS Luxor was launched in May 2020.
The Gowind design selected by Egypt is fitted with the Naval Group’s SETIS combat management system including Panoramic Sensors and Intelligence Module (PSIM). A panoramic bridge offers 360° visibility and a single enclosed mast offers 360° sensor visibility. The mast integrates the SETIS combat management system as well as most sensors of the Gowind corvette including SMART-S radar and electronic warfare equipment (including Sylena decoy launchers).
Egypt’s vessels are being equipped with 16 VL-MICA surface-to-air missiles and eight Exocet MM40 surface-to-surface missiles as well as one 76 mm and two 20 mm guns. The vessels can each carry one medium helicopter (such as the Eurocopter EC 725 Cougar) and will be fitted with torpedo launchers. Sensors include a Kingklip sonar and Captas 2 towed sonar.
The Egyptian Gowind 2500 has a total length of 102 metres, a width of 16 metres, displacement of 2600 tonnes and a maximum speed of 25 knots. Range at 15 knots is 3 700 nautical miles. Including a helicopter detachment, crew is 65 persons.
This variation of the Gowind family has been ordered by both Egypt, Malaysia and the UAE. Naval Group also offered this corvette design to Greece.
