Egypt has received its first Gowind 2500 corvette from France.
Manufacturer Naval Group (formerly DCNS) announced on September 22, 2017 that it had delivered the first Gowind 2500 corvette to the Egyptian Navy, at a ceremony in Lorient, France. The ceremony was attended by by the commander in chief of the Egyptian Navy, Admiral Ahmed Khaled, as well as Naval Group’s CEO, Hervé Guillou.
The press release noted that the corvette, ENS El Fateh, had been delivered 36 months after being ordered.
The corvette was due to begin sailing to Egypt on September 23.
Naval Group’s CEO Guillou noted,
Naval Group is particularly proud to announce today’s delivery of the first Gowind corvette for Egypt, a strategic client and partner of the group. Design, build and testing have been achieved in a record of 3 years. Naval Group and its industrial partners are mobilized to assist Egypt in the local construction in technology transfer of the three following corvettes. Once again I would like to enhance the exceptional professionalism of the Egyptian crew members and engineers.
In addition to El Fateh, Egypt has procured three more Gowind 2500 corvettes. While El Fateh was constructed in France, the remaining three are to be constructed in Egypt, with work on the first of these three already underway.
Cairo has ordered a number of naval vessels from Naval Group in recent years, as part of Egypt’s effort to boost its naval capabilities. The country already received its two Mistral helicopter carriers as well as a FREMM frigate from the shipbuilder.
Military markets analyst, covering Eurasia, Middle East, and Africa.
