Egyptian Navy receives Pohang-class corvette as gift from South Korea

A Pohang-class corvette transferred to Egypt as a gift from South Korea arrived to the Egyptian naval base Alexandria on Thursday, October 26.

The former Republic of Korea Navy corvette was known as ROKS Jinju and was decommissioned by the ROK Navy in December 2016.

Once the corvette enters Egyptian naval service it will be named ENS Shabab Misr (Youth of Egypt).

Announcing the corvette’s arrival to Egypt, military spokesman Tamer al-Refaay said South Korea gifted the ship to Egypt in the framework of “distinguished military relations between the Egyptian and Korean armed forces”.

Following the visit of Egyptian defense minister Sedki Sobhi to South Korea in September this year, Egypt’s defense ministry announced it would be receiving at least one navy vessel from South Korea. The ministry did not specify the exact vessel or vessels that would be transferred to Egypt at the time.

The former ROKS Jinju is a Flight III Pohang-class corvette built by Hyundai Heavy Industries and commissioned into ROK Navy in 1988. It displaces 1,240 tons and is capable of reaching a speed of 32 knots.

The arrival of the South Korean corvette comes just over a week after Egypt welcomed its first GoWind corvette from French Naval Group and the second Type 209/1400 submarine from German TKMS.