France to sell Egypt advanced frigates and jet fighters

France to sell Egypt advanced frigates and jet fighters

FREMM Frigate

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FREMM Frigate
FREMM Frigate

France will become a major arms supplier for Egypt.

Cairo is interested in procuring 20 Rafale fighter jets as well as two FREMM frigates from France in a potential deal worth nearly six billion euros.

French newspaper La Tribune reported that France has offered two FREMM (European multipurpose frigate – French for Frégate Européenne Multi-Mission) multi-mission frigates designed and produced by DCNS. This deal alone is estimated at 1.8 billion Euros.

Additionally, France offered Egypt 20 Dassault Rafale fighter jets, whose price tag is 3.6 billion Euros. Representatives from both European companies are scheduled to visit Egypt within days to promote the deal.

La Tribune quotes ‘reliable sources’ as saying the deals could be finalized soon, with contracts signed in the coming weeks. Also, European defense giant MBDA would supply missiles for both the ships and aircraft.

Egypt apparently expressed interest in up to 24 Rafale jets in September last year, during a visit by French defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. The country had originally shown interest in the Rafael back in 2011 during the ‘Arab Spring’.

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Dassault Rafale Fighter Jet
Dassault Rafale Fighter Jet

The Egyptian military has fairly close ties with France, and operates French equipment such as various vehicles and around 18 Mirage 2000 fighters. The country recently ordered four Gowind 2500 corvettes from France. The first of them is about to be delivered, and the remaining three will be built in the coming years.

The U.S has suspended some of its $1.3 billion in annual military aid following the ouster of President Mohamed Mursi by the Egyptian military in July 2013. This brought Cairo to look for other sources of weapon systems.

France is one arms source, but Russia is also “back in the game.” Last September, Alexander Fomin, Russia’s chief of Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, said Egypt had agreed to a $3.5 billion arms deal that includes fighter jets, surface-to-air missiles, submarines and other equipment.

Russian defense industry official Sergei Chemezov earlier told RIA Novosti that arms exports to Egypt would include deliveries of small arms, air defense systems and artillery. Russia earlier expressed interest in MiG-29/35 fighters, Mi-35 attack helicopters and other hardware.

Presumably as part of the deal, Egypt is buying S-300VM air defense systems from Almaz Antey for around $500 million. This is according to Russian daily Vedomosti. Another publication, Fontanka reported earlier this month that a factory in St. Petersburg was building 22 tracked vehicles used with the S-300VM for an unidentified foreign customer.