Here is the first Fremm of Fincantieri ex Marina sold to Egypt
The first Fremm ex Navy (Spartaco Shergat) destined for Egypt was renamed Al Galala. The unit will soon be delivered to the Cairo Navy in the coming weeks, the crew is training in Spezia. All the details
The headlights on the sale of the Fremm to Egypt are rekindled, a question that has caused fibrillation in the government in recent months and especially between the Navy and the executive.
At the center of the diatribes are the two Fremm ships of Fincantieri, the multi-role frigates Spartaco Schergat and Emilio Bianchi, which were destined for the Italian Navy.
However, Egypt requested the two ships from Italy and the government authorized the sale through the company Orizzonti Sistemi Navali (controlled by Fincantieri and Leonardo).
So much so that one of the two Fremm has already been renamed by the Egyptian Navy.
“The first Fremm ex Navy – Spartaco Shergat – destined for Egypt is called Al Galala. The unit will be delivered to the Cairo Navy in the coming weeks, while the crew has been training in Spezia for almost 2 months ”, Pietro Batacchi, editor of Rid (Italian defense magazine) wrote today.
Last August, in fact, Egypt officially signed an agreement for the purchase of two Italian Fremm frigates of Fincantieri worth 1.2 billion euros.
All the details.
THE FREMM SPARTACO SHERGAT REBAT AT THE GALALA
On 25 November, the Egyptian Mahmoud Gamal, analyst of military affairs, posted on Twitter the photo of the two Fremmas, writing: “First appearance of the 1st class frigate Bergamini (GP) of the Egyptian Navy called“ ENS al-Galala ”.
This is precisely the Schergat frigate which was to be delivered to the Navy on 5 June, according to the previously agreed plans.
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 after 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.
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.
Naturally, evaluations were also made on the purely political aspects of the question. In this respect, the role played by Egypt in the enlarged Mediterranean and the fight against terrorism and the fight against human trafficking, from the protection of our energy interests to the Libyan crisis, must be taken into consideration.
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 ”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/egitto-fremm-fincantieri/ on Fri, 27 Nov 2020 15:28:12 +0000.