Egypt signed a 5.2 billion Euro ($5.92 billion) deal to buy French weaponry on Monday in a move Cairo hopes will boost its military power as fears grow of conflict in neighboring Libya spilling over its border.

The agreement is for 24 Rafale combat jets made by Dassault Aviation, a multi-mission naval frigate, and air-to-air missiles.

Egyptian Defense Minister Sidqi Sobqi signed the deal with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian in a ceremony in the presence of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and a French delegation that included the manufacturers, state news agency MENA said.

Thales welcomed the selection by Egypt of the Rafale omnirole combat aircraft and the FREMM multi-mission frigate.

“Thales thanks the Egyptian authorities for the trust that they have shown in Thales and in its partners by choosing their naval and aeronautical systems. We also wish to highlight the strong support of the French authorities in the conclusion of this contract. We are proud to contribute to Egyptian defense with our technological equipment,” said Patrice Caine, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Thales Group.

Thales provides numerous pieces of state-of-the-art equipment and systems for the Rafale, the FREMM and their respective armaments. They represent around 25% of the total value of the Rafale and 20% of the FREMM.

Thales, a member of the Rafale team with both Dassault Aviation and SNECMA (Safran), equips this combat aircraft with systems providing it with a multi-sensor capability such as the RBE2 AESA, the first European combat radar with active electronic scanning antenna, the SPECTRA electronic warfare system, optronics, the communication, navigation, identification suite, avionics, and the power generation systems.

The Thales systems developed in collaboration with DCNS on board the FREMM derive from the latest state-of-the-art technology. For this multi-mission frigate, Thales provides the Herakles multi-function radar, the communication suite, the anti-submarine sonar suite (ASM), the Artemis infrared search & track system (IRST) and the electronic warfare system (RESM/CESM). This equipment reinforces the anti-air, anti-naval and anti-submarine combat capabilities of the FREMM.

For this contract Thales will also provide missile electronics and inertial systems.

 

(Photo: Reuters)