Fincantieri delivers (quietly) the first frigate to Egypt
Al Galala, Fincantieri's first Fremm ex Navy frigate (Spartaco Shergat) destined for Egypt was delivered on 23 December
The first of the two Fremm frigates of Fincantieri purchased from Egypt to the Egyptian Navy has been delivered.
On December 23 at a ceremony "on the sly and not publicized" was delivered by Fincantieri to the officers of the Navy of Egypt, Muggiano at the shipyard in La Spezia, the multi-role frigate FREMM spartaco schergat, now renamed "Al-Galala ". The Italian Peace and Disarmament Network reported this in a statement.
No official announcement from the Trieste shipbuilding group, nor the presence of the Conte executive at the ceremony.
As for the second frigate, it will arrive in the spring of next year, according to the estimates of the Italian company Fincantieri.
All the details on the news regarding the purchase of two Italian Fremm frigates by Fincantieri worth 1.2 billion euros.
DELIVERY ON THE MUTE OF THE FINCANTIERI FRIGATE TO EGYPT
From the Italian Network Peace and Disarmament comment on how the attempt to conceal the handover and the subsequent departure for Egypt during the Christmas period manifests "the embarrassment on the part of the Italian government for this whole operation: not only no representative of the Executive attended the ceremony, but there is no official statement from the various ministries involved in any way (Ministry of Defense, Foreign Affairs and Economic Development) ”.
The sale of the Fremm to Egypt is an issue that has in fact caused fibrillation in the government in recent months and especially between the Navy and the executive .
THE FREMM PROGRAM
The Fremm is a class of multipurpose frigates designed by the Italian Fincantieri and the French company Naval Group for their respective navies. The Fremm program consists of the construction of 18 ships: 8 for France, 10 for Italy. The first Fremm was delivered in 2012 and the contractual delivery target is 2022 for all 18 frigates.
INTENDED FOR THE ITALIAN NAVY
The Fremm ships were therefore commissioned to Fincantieri by the Italian Navy as part of the aforementioned Italian-French cooperation program under the coordination of Occar (Organization Conjointe de Cooperation sur l'Armement, the international organization for cooperation in the field of arms ).
The two frigates – Spartaco Schergat and Emilio Bianchi, launched respectively in January 2019 and January 2020 – were therefore to be delivered to the Italian Navy.
But Cairo has expressed interest in the two frigates. So much so that "the start of preliminary contractual activities between Fincantieri and the Egyptian government dates back to the first half of 2019", reconstructed Minister of Defense, Lorenzo Guerini (Pd), at a hearing with the Regeni Commission last July.
THE AGREEMENT WITH EGYPT
At the beginning of June the pan- Arab weekly The Arab Weekly wrote that even Italy could sell to Egypt 6 Fremm frigates (4 new in addition to the 2 mentioned) and 20 Fincantieri offshore patrol vessels , as well as 24 Eurofighter Typhoon fighters and numerous Leonardo's M-346 training aircraft, plus an observation satellite, for a total value of 10.7 billion dollars.
The order, one of the largest since the war, would confirm Egypt as the first customer of the Italian military industry (it already is with a turnover of 871 million euros in 2019 alone).
Last August, however, Egypt officially signed an agreement for the purchase of two Italian Fremm frigates of Fincantieri worth 1.2 billion euros.
THE TREND
As the analyst Giuseppe Gagliano pointed out on Start , “on the other hand, the volume of business between Italy and Egypt in the armaments sector has tripled compared to 2018. If in fact the total amount in 2018 was around 69 million euros in 2019 it reached almost 240 million euros ".
FINCANTIERI'S COMMITMENT TO MARINA ITALIA
In the meantime, the Defense Staff has asked Fincantieri to reintegrate two more latest generation units in favor of the Navy by 2024. Construction of the new Fremm will begin this year, according to what was reported by Minister Guerini in the commission. last July.
THE POSITION OF THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT
But the political controversy has not ended, especially since the story is intertwined with the investigation into the crime of Giulio Regeni and with the case of Patrick Zaki, the Egyptian student enrolled at the University of Bologna who has been detained for over 9 months.
On 28 October the Honorable Lorenzo Fioramonti (Mixed Group), former Minister of Education at M5S, published the response of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to his question on the story of the sale by Italy of the Fremm military frigates to the Egypt.
In the letter, signed by the Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Manlio Di Stefano (M5S), we read that "the government has carried out both a careful examination from a technical legal point of view, at national and international level, and at a technical-military level, also ascertaining that any sale would not prejudice the activities and operations of the Italian armed forces.
This overall examination was completed with a discussion in the Council of Ministers at the meeting on 11 June 2020, following which Fincantieri was granted the authorization for contractual negotiations for the two frigates in question. After the conclusion of these negotiations and a further passage to the Council of Ministers, in the meeting of 7 August 2020, the definitive export authorization was then issued by the Uama National Authority ".
The representative of the Farnesina also specified that “these assessments and choices do not in any way invalidate the firm and incessant search for the truth about Giulio's barbarian murderer. […]. Also with regard to the case of Patrick Zaki, we will continue to give it high priority ”.
I didn't have time to publish the previous tweet on #GiulioRegeni , I received this news. After my parliamentary question a few months ago, we will continue to ask the Government for a complete change of line on relations with Egypt https://t.co/9063iPjygP
– Lorenzo Fioramonti (@lofioramonti) December 28, 2020
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/fincantieri-consegna-in-sordina-fregata-egitto/ on Tue, 29 Dec 2020 18:32:05 +0000.