DCNS Starts GOWIND 2500 corvettes Construction For Egyptian Navy

DCNS has started to construct GOWIND 2500 corvette, which is the first of a series of four units that will be delivered to Egypt before 2019.

The delivery of the first vessel is slated for 2017 that is less than four years after the signature of the contract last summer, the company announced on Wednesday.

The Group had already won a first contract for the Royal Malaysian Navy, which covers the design and construction of six corvettes in Malaysia at the Boustead Naval Shipyard through technology transfer.

The first Egyptian GOWIND 2500 corvette will be built on the DCNS site in Lorient, which is the modern naval shipyard in Europe. The three following units will be built in Alexandria within the frame of a construction technology transfer agreement.

The GOWIND 2500 vessel responds to the needs of navies to have access to a complete and multi-mission combat vessel for sovereignty and maritime protection operations and the fight against illicit trafficking.

It incorporates the SETIS combat system, developed by DCNS for FREMM frigates and GOWIND corvettes, the “Panoramic Sensors and Intelligence Module (PSIM)”,  an assembly bringing together the integrated mast with its various instruments as well as the Operational Centre and its associated technical rooms and the high degree of integration, automation and conviviality of the DCNS systems.

The cutting of the first metal sheets for the first GOWIND 2500 corvette built in Lorient symbolizes the launch of the industrial program conducted by DCNS for the Egyptian Navy. It includes the construction of four latest-generation corvettes, both in France and Egypt.