Alexandria Shipyard (ASY) launched the first locally built Gowind corvette, the first modern warship to be deployed into service with Egyptian Navy.
The Navy vessel – 976 was launched during a ceremony held in Alexandria on September 6.
In 2014 the Egyptian Navy ordered four Gowind 2500 corvettes for around 1 billion euros from France’s Naval Group (formerly DCNS). One vessel, El Fateh was built in Lorient and the other three being built in Egypt.
France’s Naval Group created a subsidiary branch, the Alexandria Naval for Maintenance and Industry in June 2018 to strengthen its long-term partnership with Egyptian Navy.
The Gowind-class corvette, along with El-fateh that has already been deployed with the Egyptian Navy on a number of operations, will help bolster the capabilities of the service.
Construction on El-fateh commenced on 16 April 2015 at Naval Group’s manufacturing site in Lorient, France, and is one of the four vessels that are scheduled for delivery to Egyptian Navy before next year.
