Egypt takes delivery of first Gowind corvette from France

French shipbuilder Naval Group (formerly known as DCNS) delivered the first Gowind 2500 corvette to the Egyptian Navy on Friday, September 22.

The ceremony took place in Lorient in the presence of Admiral Ahmed Khaled, commander in chief of the Egyptian Navy, Hervé Guillou, president and CEO of Naval Group and senior officials of the French Navy and the French armament procurement agency.

ENS El Fateh, as the vessel is named, was delivered 36 months after the order was placed and will start her voyage home on September 23.

The other three corvettes will be built in Egypt under a transfer of technology agreement.

The French company has overall ten vessels in the class under contract, four for Egyptian and six for the Malaysian Navy.

Egypt has previously received a FREMM frigate and two Mistral-class landing helicopter docks from the French shipbuilder.

“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,” Hervé Guillou, president and CEO of Naval Group said. “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.”

All Gowind corvettes for the Royal Malaysian Navy will be built in Malaysia where Boustead Naval Shipyards has launched the first unit in the class on August 24.

Egypt’s 102-meter corvette comes equipped with the SETIS combat system and the “Panoramic Sensors and Intelligence Module (PSIM) in addition to a 76mm Oto Melara gun, vertical launch cells for MBDA’s MICA missile and torpedo launchers.

Displacing 2,600 tonnes, the ship is crewed by 80 persons (including the helicopter detachment) and reaches a speed of 25 knots.