![]() ENS Gamal Abdel Nasser in 2022 | |
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Name | Vladivostok |
Ordered | June 2011 |
Builder | |
Laid down | 1 February 2012 |
Launched | 15 October 2013 [1] |
Status | Sea trials completed, Contract cancelled |
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Name | Gamal Abdel Nasser [2] |
Namesake | Gamal Abdel Nasser |
Acquired | 23 September 2015 [3] |
Commissioned | 2 June 2016 [4] |
Homeport | Safaga, Egypt [5] |
Identification |
|
Status | In service [6] |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Mistral-class amphibious assault ship |
Displacement |
|
Length | 200 m (660 ft) |
Beam | 32 m (105 ft) |
Draught | 6.3 m (21 ft) |
Installed power | 3 × Wärtsilä 16V32 (3 × 6,200 kW (8,300 hp)) |
Speed | 18.8 knots (34.8 km/h; 21.6 mph) |
Range |
|
Armament | 4 × AN/TWQ-1 Avenger mobile SAM (32 FIM-92 Stinger missiles) [7] |
Aircraft carried |
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Aviation facilities | Helicopter deck and hangar |
ENS Gamal Abdel Nasser (L1010) is an Egyptian Navy amphibious assault ship, a type of helicopter carrier, of the French-designed Mistral class. She was originally built for the Russian Navy and underwent sea trials. [9] Subsequently, the contract was cancelled by France and agreement on compensation reached with the Russian government. Egypt and France concluded the deal to acquire the two former Russian Mistral for roughly 950 million euros. [10]
The Russian government placed an order for the ship in 2011. The construction of the ship would be shared between the countries with France building about 60 percent and Russia 40. Work started in France, in Saint-Nazaire, on 1 February 2012 and in the Russian Baltiysky Zavod shipyard in St. Petersburg in October 2012. Russia would send her parts to France for final assembly. [11] The ship was expected to join the Russian Navy in 2015. [12] [13] The ship was launched on 15 October 2013. [14] The ship began her first sea trials on 5 March 2014. [15] [16]
Savings in construction costs were anticipated, due to the use of commercial off the shelf parts, rather than requiring every system to be designed to military standards. [17] [18]
The Russian acquisition of French Mistral-class amphibious assault ships was considered to be the largest defense deal between Russia and the West since World War II. [19]
The 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine triggered rising international criticism. [17] [18] France was under political pressure from other nations to sanction Russia by cancelling or suspending delivery of the two Mistral-class vessels.
On 3 September 2014, French President François Hollande released an announcement that France was suspending the delivery of Vladivostok to Russia due to the ongoing War in Donbass, Ukraine. [20]
By 13 September 2014, a partial ceasefire was in place in Ukraine. This improvement in conditions in Ukraine was sufficient for French authorities to allow Vladivostok to go to sea for her acceptance trials. French Defence Ministry sources said a decision on the delivery of Vladivostok would be taken by mid-November. [21] On 25 November, it was announced that delivery of the two ships was to be postponed indefinitely. Russia threatened legal action over the postponement. [22] In August 2015 the two governments reached agreement on terms for cancelling the contract; France would keep the ships and fully reimburse Russia. [23]
On 7 August 2015, a French diplomatic source confirmed that President Hollande discussed the matter with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi during his visit to Egypt during the inauguration of the New Suez Canal in Ismailia. [24] [25] Subsequently, Egypt and France concluded the deal to acquire the two former Russian Mistral for roughly 950 million euros, including the costs of training Egyptian crews. [26] [27] Speaking on RMC Radio, Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Defence Minister, said that Egypt had already paid the whole price for the helicopter carriers.[ citation needed ]
On 2 June 2016, DCNS delivered the ex-Vladivostok, renamed Gamal Abdel Nasser. The flag transfer ceremony took place in the presence of Egyptian and French Navies' Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Rabie and Admiral Rogel, Hervé Guillou, chairman and chief executive officer of DCNS, Laurent Castaing, chairman and chief executive officer of STX France, and senior Egyptian and French officials. Before sailing to Alexandria, the ship participated in a joint exercise between the Egyptian and French Navies. [6] On 16 September 2016, DCNS delivered the second ship Anwar El Sadat which also participated in a joint exercise with the French Navy before arriving at her home port of Alexandria. [28]
Since receiving its two Mistral-class carriers, Egypt had issued an international tender for the procurement of new maritime helicopters. The Egyptian Navy and Air Force studied several offers for helicopters to use on both carriers. [29] European and Russian manufacturers entered the bidding procedure; NHIndustries and Airbus Helicopters were reported to have offered their NH90 and Tiger helicopters, while Russian Helicopters offered its Ka-52K helicopter. [30] [31] By May 2017, the tender had reached its final stage, Russian Helicopters stated that it would immediately enter into pricing negotiations if the company won the tender.[ citation needed ] In June 2017, Russia announced it had won the tender to provide Ka-52K helicopters. The head of the FSVTS, Dmitry Shugayev, said that pre-contract work was underway, including final agreement on the helicopter's technical concept and other financial conditions. [32] Egypt is likely to buy the same package intended for the Russian Navy, which includes Ka-52K attack helicopters and Ka-29/31 utility helicopters, before the contract was cancelled by France. [33]
In June 2016, Gamal Abdel Nasser took part in military exercises jointly conducted by the Egyptian and French navies in the Mediterranean Sea. The drills were held under the code name Cleopatra 2016 and lasted for several days, they were the first for the ship after being delivered to Egypt earlier that month. The exercises included a number of activities such as both forces planning and managing naval combat missions. [34]
An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a naval force to project air power worldwide without depending on local bases for staging aircraft operations. Carriers have evolved since their inception in the early twentieth century from wooden vessels used to deploy balloons to nuclear-powered warships that carry numerous fighters, strike aircraft, helicopters, and other types of aircraft. While heavier aircraft such as fixed-wing gunships and bombers have been launched from aircraft carriers, these aircraft have not landed on a carrier. By its diplomatic and tactical power, its mobility, its autonomy and the variety of its means, the aircraft carrier is often the centerpiece of modern combat fleets. Tactically or even strategically, it replaced the battleship in the role of flagship of a fleet. One of its great advantages is that, by sailing in international waters, it does not interfere with any territorial sovereignty and thus obviates the need for overflight authorizations from third-party countries, reduces the times and transit distances of aircraft and therefore significantly increases the time of availability on the combat zone.
A landing helicopter dock (LHD) is a multipurpose amphibious assault ship which is capable of operating helicopters and has a well deck. The United States Navy (USN) and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) use the term as a hull classification symbol.
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The Canberra class is a ship class of two landing helicopter dock (LHD) ships built for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Planning to upgrade the navy's amphibious fleet began in 2000, based on Australian experiences leading the International Force for East Timor peacekeeping operation. With a new climate for growing Australian Navy spending, a desire existed for forward defence capability for landing and supporting troops on Asian territory, that had never existed in Australian history, even with the old Majestic-class light fleet carriers, HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Sydney in the 1970s. In 2004, French company Direction des Constructions Navales (DCN) and Spanish company Navantia were invited to tender proposals, with DCN offering the Mistral-class amphibious assault ship and Navantia proposing the "Buque de Proyección Estratégica" design. The Spanish design was selected in 2007, with Navantia responsible for construction of the ships from the keel to the flight deck, and BAE Systems Australia handling the fabrication of the combat and communications systems. Finally, Siemens (Germany) supplied and fitted the azimuth thrusters.
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Then there is the possibility of poking Vladimir Putin in the eye by taking over ownership of the Sevastopol.
The September 2014 decision by France to withhold delivery of two Mistral class Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD), being built for Russia, represents a tremendous opportunity for the NATO alliance, for the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), and even for a French shipbuilding industry and economy that might otherwise lose out.