The ships of Standing NATO Maritime Group Two (SNMG2) conducted a port visit to Alexandria, Egypt from the 2nd to the 4th of December followed by a Passing Exercise with the Egyptian Navy on the 5th of December, say NATO.
Although hampered by the weather conditions, the Passing Exercise consisted of a tactical manoeuvre exercise, helicopter operations, replenishment practise and enhanced interoperability between the NATO and Egyptian Navy ships. The frigate ENS Alexandria, the fast missile ship ENS Soliman Ezzat and the replenishment ship ENS Shalatin participated from the Egyptian navy.
“Egypt is a NATO Partner nation and NATO ships regularly call on ports in Egypt as part of their routine patrols in the Mediterranean Sea. These port visits allow opportunities to conduct exchanges to support interoperability between the NATO ships and those of the Egyptian Navy”, said NATO in a statement.
“I conclude that the visit to Alexandria has been very successful,” said the Commander of SNMG2, Commodore Boudewijn Boots.
“It struck me that our Egyptian colleagues prepared both our visit and our mutual exercises at sea very well. I look forward to further cooperation with the Egyptian Navy in the Mediterranean.”
Led by Commodore Boots of the Royal Netherlands Navy, SNMG2 consists of the flagship HNLMS De Ruyter, frigate HMCS Ville de Quebec and Combat support ship ESPS Cantabria.
I wonder what Egypt will be doing with the 2 French built meant for Russia but sold to Egypt Mistral-class amphibious assault ships, or will they just buy them to look more powerfull like India does and never use them anywere apart from on state occasions and party’s….
The Cynic In me says, They will lay low for a while, waiting for the right time then They’ll be sold to the Pesky Rusky’s when we’re not looking. I’ll eat my Y Fronts If that’s not the case.
To be fair, don’t a lot of military all over the world do that? Look powerful with kit sitting idle but in reality they lack the training, know how, experience, logistics, and professionalism to use effectively.
HM forces don’t fall into that category. Numbers are a major issue yes but they can be, and are, used. Alongside the No 1 power the US at that.
I’m very proud of that myself.
If we ever buy French it should only be if they buy something back.
UK has been burned too often.
Yes. Saying that I would be 8/12 engin de débarquement amphibie rapide tomorrow.
I can’t remember if they fit in the Albion well dock. Darn it! We might have to buy new big dock ships too……..
Wow. I’ve learnt something there Steve not heard or seen that, thank you.
Makes our LCU look ridiculous!
We have gone with the carriers which if the balloon does go up will tie into the USN / USMC amphibious world and not the fleet side of the business. We need to look now beyond F35b and all the talk of ‘carrier strike’ as that is jogging on now with some tangible results. We need now to look to maintaining the Royal Marines as the second layer of that capability. We seem to want to diminish them just as everybody else is beefing up that capability. A nice big FAST dock shop with three fast ship to shore connectors… Read more »
We should have bought them. Good bits of kit by all accounts. Could have done a deal to px for a new build QE carrier to supplement C de G!
QE Class should not be considered for any part exchange! End of.
maurice – that’s a bit of a mute point,the design of the QE and the proposed but ultimately cancelled PA2 were pretty similar seeing as they were both Thales projects.
One would question how the Egyptian navy would be able to afford to run 2 Mistral-class amphibious assault ships. That would tax any NATO navy to keep both ships in service and not as harbour bound rust buckets. “Sell them later the Russians” (interesting thought), or scrap one to keep the other in service a few years down the road. Egypt has enough problems with home grown terrorists. Surely a few frigates and corvettes would of been a better bet than 2 Mistrals, we shall have to see how well they serve the Egyptian Navy in the years ahead.
Down the Suez and along the Med; Egypt has a lot of coastline accessible by Mistrals. Perhaps they see the value in being able to launch helos from anywhere along the coast, closest to their target, and quell insurgencies